h 1 B nTli Y ~^ f- 
 
 OF THE ', 
 
 PRI]¥CETO]V, JV. J. 
 
 DONATION OF 
 
 SAMUEL A«NKW, 
 
 JVo. 
 
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 BX 83A0 .F59 18A9 
 
 The "Fly sheets" vindicated 
 


 '*-^ • tV 
 
 y 
 
/ THE ■ /#V/. 
 
 "FLY SHEETS" VINDICATED: 
 
 OR 
 
 THE STATEMENTS AND ARGUMENTS 
 
 OF ^ 
 
 THE WRITERS IN THE ELY SHEETS 
 
 IN ANSWER TO OBSERVATIONS IN "THE WATCHMAN," "PAPERS ON 
 
 WESLEYAN JvIATTERS," "REMARKS ON THE FLY SHEETS," 
 
 AND OTHER ANONYMOUS PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 By Sonaz: or Them. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE APrENDED, 
 
 IIEMAEKS ON THE CASE OF THE EEV. DANIEL WALTON, 
 
 AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONFERENCE RULE OF 1885. 
 
 *' Measures, not Men," 
 
 LONDON : 
 JAMES GILBERT, 49, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXLIX. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 An attempt having been made, by the writers of the "Fly Sheets," 
 at great personal inconvenience and expense, to effect a peaceable reform 
 in various departments of the Executive of Modern Wesleyan Method- 
 ism ; and that attempt having failed, through the supineness or timidity 
 of those vi^ho ought to have been the first to move in such a cause, they 
 now reluctantly, and as a last resource,, bring the case before the 
 Wesleyan Community at large. To the people they now make their 
 appeal. It is in the power of the people to remedy the mischiefs of 
 which the writers complain, and to restore their beloved Methodism to 
 its original purity and efficiency. Let them but speak with sufficient 
 plainness, on the various questions now in agitation, and all will be well. 
 No grasp, however tenacious ; no effrontery, however bold ; can long 
 retain and support an abuse upon which the people have once past the 
 sentence of condemnation. 
 
 That the writers of the " Fly Sheets" were anxious to preserve the 
 peace of the body undisturbed, is obvious from the fact, that, with few 
 exceptions, the circulation of those papers was confined amongst the 
 preachers. Had they been desirous to stir up strife, or had their motives 
 been mercenary, the publication of those documents in the ordinary . 
 method, would have amply secured both those objects. This, however, 
 was far from their thoughts, whilst engaged in their unpleasant task. 
 It was hoped, that, as the evils on which the writers animadverted 
 originated with, and were perpetuated by, the preachers, the remedy 
 would also have been found by them, and by them promptly applied ; to 
 them, therefore, in the first instance, the appeal was nuule. This hope. 
 
however, has proved fallacious. With a few noble exceptions, the 
 preachers have allowed themselves to be either cajoled or terrified into a 
 measure intended to throw discredit on the statements contained in the 
 " Fly Sheets," and consequently to perpetuate the evils exposed. Indeed, 
 it has been the fashion to denounce the " Fly Sheets " as the repositories 
 of all that is calumnious and false ; and that, too, in many instances, by 
 men who have never bestowed the requisite pains to investigate the state- 
 ments they contain. This, doubtless, has been found the most conveni- 
 ent mode of settling the questions mooted in those obnoxious papers. 
 It is much less difficult to make a bold assertion, than to originate a 
 sound argument ; it is far easier to denounce a book as false, wholesale, 
 and in the mass, than to demonstrate its falsehood in the detail. Hence 
 the charitable credulity of a generous and Christian people has been 
 imposed upon. And even those individuals who are too well acquainted 
 with the administration of " Methodism as it is," to be altogether 
 deceived by sweeping assertions, in the absence of logical and docu- 
 mentary proof, — (not having had an opportunity of judging for them- 
 selves as to the truth or falsehood of the allegations contained in the 
 " Fly Sheets,"^ — have been considerably mystified in their attempts to 
 form an opinion on the subject. 
 
 Nor is this the worst feature of the case. There has arisen a spirit of 
 furious persecution against all who are supposed to sympathize with the 
 writers, or who are in the least suspected of being " cognizant" of, or 
 in any way participant in, the aiding or abetting of the composition and 
 circulation of their statements. Measures have been originated, for 
 purposes of detection and intimidation, to which history aifords no 
 parallel, except in the records of the Romish Inquisition, or the English 
 Star Chamber in the reign of the Stuarts : all law — social, civil, and 
 Christian — has been most shamelessly violated ; a highly esteemed minister 
 of the Gospel has been subjected to torture, i/i comparison with which 
 the rack is but a couch of eider down ; — whilst others, whose guilt is 
 merely that of being " suspected^''' have been covertly threatened with 
 the ai)plication of a similar inquisitional process. 
 
5 
 
 It is time, therefore, thcat the " popuLar ignorance," as to the allega- 
 tions and arguments of the " Fly Sheets," — on which their impugners 
 have so largely calculated, — should be removed. It is time, also, that 
 the iron hand of persecution, which has already seized one victim, and 
 which is even now " stretched out " to '' vex certain others," should 
 be arrested and broken. This two-fold object, the writers feel, can only 
 be effected by a publication to the Wesleyan Community at large, of the 
 substance of the "Fly Sheets;" accompanied by such additional argu- 
 ments and illustrations as may appear necessary to remove the false glare 
 thrown over the subject, by a certain " Guardian of the Nighty'" — whose 
 special vocation seems to be to keep the community in a state of profound 
 repose, that certain characters may '"'■ walk and loork in darhieas'" 
 undisturbed. 
 
 Should the present publication fail in producing the desired reforma- 
 tion, it will be followed by other revelations. The writers have not yet 
 exhausted their arrows, — would that they had, for they delight not in 
 war, — their quiver is yet " full of them." They have taken their stand, 
 and are not to be put down either by clamour, or misrepresentation, or 
 persecution. A clear justification, or a total abandonment, of what they 
 conceive to be evils of enormous magnitude, is what they seek, — and 
 with nothing less will they be satisfied. 
 
 The writers would observe, that though they adopt as their motto 
 " Measures, not men ;" they do not wish it to be understood that men 
 are to pass unnoticed, either in their sentiments, expressions, or proceed- 
 ings. All that is meant is, that men are not the primary objects of 
 attack. And this is sufKcient as a vindication against the charge of per- 
 sonality. There can be no measures without men ; the motives, argu- 
 ments, and conduct of the men are mixed up with the measures, and they 
 generally, as to merit or demerit, stand or fall together. Hence it is, 
 that though measures constitute the theme, their supporters are of 
 necessity named in the same category. It is in this sense that the 
 writers, if personal at all, are to be understood as being personal. A 
 personality with which every man is chargeable who undertakes the 
 
6 
 
 exposure of wrong-doing ; and which is no more than that which the 
 prophet Nathan exhibited when he said to a guilty king, — " Thou art the 
 man." All other personality the writers disclaim. If the names of 
 certain men are found associated with certain measures which are the 
 subjects of animadversion, the fault is not to be charged on the writers, 
 but on the men who have placed themselves in such an obnoxious associa- 
 tion. Viewed abstractedly, indeed, the men are themselves personally 
 insignificant, and would never have become the objects of personality of 
 any kind, had not their relative position enabled them., unhappily, to 
 originate measures by the operation of which, it is conceived, the well- 
 being of the entire community is placed in jeopardy. 
 
 It is but due to the Rev. Daniel Walton, to declare, that the persecu- 
 tion to which he has been, and is still, subject, is as unrighteous as it is 
 cruel. The writers, who are familiar with the whole history of the 
 " Fly Sheets," from first to last, distinctly affirm the truth of his state- 
 ment, when he declares that he never wrote a single line derogatory to 
 the character of Mr. T. P. Bunting ; and that he knew nothing of the 
 design, and could not by possibility know any thing of even the existence 
 of the " Fly Sheets," previously to printing and circulation. That 
 knowledge he then had in common with Doctor Bunting, his persecutor, 
 and his judges ; and with equal fairness may they also be charged with 
 being " cognizant." This announcement is due to him ; and whilst the 
 writers regret that circumstances have prevented an earlier avowal of the 
 fact, they regard it as cause of triumph that hitherto he has been able to 
 hold head against the storm by which he has been so cruelly assailed. 
 His firmness, under circumstances so peculiar and trying, has raised him 
 high in the estimation of all right-minded men ; whilst the pertinacity 
 with which he is still pursued, cannot fail ultimately to overwhelm his 
 betrayers and persecutors with well-merited obloquy and disgrace. 
 
 Meanwhile we would affectionately exhort him to be of good courage. 
 He is not the first of his name who has fallen for a time under th(i power 
 of designing men. " Fear not, Daniel; thy God, whom thou scrvost 
 continually is able to deliver thee from the mouth of the lions ; yea, and 
 
He will deliver thee.''' To certain other gentlemen connected with the 
 doings of the M;inchestor Minor District Meeting, we respectfully com- 
 mend a thoughtful consideration of the terrible catastrophe which befell 
 the Chaldean conspirators. There may, perhaps, be a closer parallel 
 between the two cases, than they think of. 
 
 In conclusion, the writers have to remark, that should the publication 
 of the present volume tend to disturb the harmony of the community, 
 they will take no blame to themselves ; — they have been compelled to the 
 step, by the reckless and insane conduct of others ; — upon others, there- 
 fore, let the odium fall. They love peace, and would do and suffer much 
 to promote it ; but they cannot forget, that the wisdom coming from 
 above is '"''first pure, then peace able." There are some who cry 
 " peace, peace," for the purpose of securing impunity in wrong; whilst 
 others, — amiable and well-meaning, but mistaken men, — are willing to 
 purchase peace at the expense of principle ; — healing slightly the wound, 
 — causing it to assume externally the appearance of soundness, — whilst, 
 at the same time, the disease is eating its way, silently but surely, to the 
 very heart of the system. In such a cry for peace — whether raised by 
 the one party or the other — the writers will not join. Peace, like gold, 
 however valuable, may be bought too dear. Better live in perpetual 
 strife, as some of the best men the world ever knew have done ; better 
 become a very Ishmael, — wearing the harness of war all your life ; and 
 at last die manfully, with the sword in your hand, and your face to the 
 foe, — than purchase peace at such a sacrifice. 
 
THE "FLY SHEETS" VINDICATED. 
 
 The "Watchman" Newspaper, after having repeatedly denounced 
 the " Fly Sheets," has at length entered the arena against them, 
 selecting as the points of his assault, the questions of Location, Central- 
 ization, and Secularization : and has endeavoured to show, in opposition to 
 the Fly Sheet writers, that these are not evils in Methodism. As these 
 are only a part of the evils argued against in the Fly Sheets, observations 
 offered in this pamphlet will not be limited to these particulars, but will 
 embrace, in substance, the pith and marrow of those publications^ on the 
 various items which they contain. 
 
 1. The Object of the Fly Sheets, as stated by the writers them- 
 selves, is not the mean, selfish, personal one, attributed to them by The 
 Watchman. Let them speak for themselves. " As our object is not to 
 sow discord in the body, we are anxious to preserve them, (the Fly 
 Sheets,) as far as possible, within the range of the priesthood." " We 
 have no private, personal ends to accomplish ; — nothing beyond the good 
 of the body, and the liberty and comfort of the preachers : we are work- 
 ing not for ourselves but for others. We pay all our own expenses, and 
 forward our observations free of cost. When Dr. Bunting has any 
 measure to introduce, as in case of forcing the Theological Institution on 
 the people, he has the privilege of making the Book-Room and the 
 preachers pay for the whole." " Measures^ not men, have inspired our 
 movement. A system, not the originators and supporters of that system, 
 is the object of our assault. Could we have opened up the system in all 
 its evils, and kept its authors and abettors out of the reach of our dis- 
 secting instruments, we would have spared the men, while we laid open, 
 without pity, their measures. But this was impossible. The men were 
 implicated in the measures ;— the abettors were the very life and soul of 
 the system. No weapon could reach it, without piercing them. This 
 was our misfortune, but their fault. Our blows, though aimed directly 
 at the system, strike hard on a few individuals. We cannot help, though 
 we sincerely regret this. They have placed themselves in a false position 
 —in the forefront ; and when our lusty yeomen let fly clouds of arrows 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 from their trusty bows, the van are the first wounrled. But this is no 
 fault of ours."— F. S. No. 1, p. 3 No. 3, p. 5.— No. 4, p. 2. 
 
 If the writers are sincere, whatever opinion may be formed of their 
 judgment, their object is defensible : they are desirous of bringing to an 
 end what, in their opinion, is a system of misrule, which is acting detri- 
 mentally, in a high degree, to Wesleyan Methodism. Much dust has 
 been thrown into the eyes of the public by The Watchman, when 
 insinuating, and even asserting, that the writers of the Fly Sheets are 
 opposed to Methodism; though they have again and again shown, that 
 their opposition is directed against the administration of Methodism. 
 The distinction is obvious. A Briton is not disloyal because he finds 
 fault with the Russell or the Feel administration. The Watchman, 
 in this respect, has not done justice to the writers, who have not 
 penned a line hostile to Methodism. Let any man, with the Fly Sheets 
 in his hand, point out a single paragraph, sentence, or sentiment 
 that will disprove this assertion ; that by any ingenuity or perversion can 
 be interpreted or twisted into evidence of disloyalty to Methodism. The 
 writers appear to be as strongly attached to the body as The Watchman 
 itself. Their crime — if it be a crime — is, that they are not blind to, or 
 silent respecting, the faults of its executive. 
 
 2. The chief anxiety manifested by the assailants of the Fly Sheets 
 has been to discover the authors. If they have done wrong, let 
 them be discovered, and let them be punished. But in the mean time, 
 let the Sheets themselves be refuted. Whatever interest the Wesleyan 
 public may take in the authorship, they feel that they have much more at 
 stake in the nature of the statements, and in the force of the reasonings, of 
 the Fly Sheets. The former is a small question compared with the latter. 
 Why, then, has there been such anxious, unremitting, and not over scru- 
 pulous effort on the one point ; and, until lately, no attempt whatever to 
 satisfy the Wesleyan public that the allegations are false, and that the 
 administration of Methodism deserves well of the body, on account of its 
 impartiality and disinterestedness ? The writers ask, " Why this expres- 
 sive silence ? Is it the calm bearing of conscious rectitude ? or the 
 dignified indifference with which sovereign majesty pours its contempt on 
 malignant but imbecile assailants? Or is the clique deserted in its 
 extremity, and does no man care for it, under the heavy censures, which, 
 we confess, are found in our pages? Osborne and Co., have shewn 
 their good will towards the assailed ; and had it been as easy to accom- 
 plish the refutation of the Fly Sheets, as they were willing to stoop to 
 
11 
 
 the office of servitors of the Inquisition, depend upon it, that instead of 
 a harmless declaration that has missed the mark, the public would have 
 been favoured by these chivalrous brethren, with an unanswerable reply 
 to our reasonings, and a triumphant demolition of our facts. No refuta- 
 tion has been attempted — for the most weighty of reasons — no refutation 
 was possible.'" — No. 4, p. 2. 
 
 Who, knowing that these Fly Sheets have been in the hands of the 
 preachers for four years, and remembering that our leading men have 
 the control of the Book-Room, the Magazine, and The Watchman, will 
 deny that there is much force in these interrogatories ; and that this 
 silence argues little generalship or considerable weakness — want of tact 
 or want of resources ? A spontaneous offer on the part of the Mission- 
 ary Secretaries, for instance, to have their accounts for repairs and 
 furniture of their houses examined by a Committee consisting of men 
 who were not on the standing Committee, and then published, would 
 have given much more satisfaction to the body, and have done more to 
 confirm its confidence, than the unwearied and dogged efforts to discover 
 the men who first mooted the apparently extravagant items of expendi- 
 ture. The one smells of vengeance : the other would have betokened 
 conscious rectitude of administration. The one may be perilous to an 
 individual : the other would have been highly satisfactory to the whole 
 body. If the author be discovered, and punished, the facts which he 
 has but narrated, the narration of which has aroused so much wrath, 
 remain as they were. His punishment is not the vindication of our 
 executive. He may deserve what he gets, but for all that, they may 
 deserve much more. Mr. Yevers* is not the only man who has said that 
 the Fly Sheets should be refuted. Do not all men see this plain point ? 
 Can there be any difference of opinion here ? The propriety of a refu- 
 tation is obvious — Why has it been so long delayed ? 
 
 At the eleventh hour, The Watchman comes to the rescue — of what ? 
 Does he offer to disprove, one by one, page by page, the reasonings and 
 facts of the Fly Sheets ? He has not engaged to do this. If he should 
 hereafter buckle to, in order to accomplish this, he will have the credit of 
 
 * Why has not this geutieman liimself got up a refutaliou ? lIo'.hiiS.'the pen of a ready 
 wi'iter, and has generally been among tlie first to tln-ow himself into the breach. Does lie 
 believe it to be the duty of the Missionai7 Secretaries, of Avhom he is reported long siuco lo 
 have said that they '• ought to refute or to resign ;" and is ho unwilling to do the work of 
 officials ? His recent correspondence in The Watchman indicates no want of will in tlie mutter. 
 Why then does liis pen stick in his inkstand ? Can he not refute ? I-s ho afraid to enter the 
 lists ? He is not wanting in courage. Earely does he flinch. 
 
12 
 
 great courage or of singular temerity ; or ho will come into the field 
 with this disadvantage — that the enquiry will be made, " Why did not 
 he appear m it before ? " The long silence of The Watchman is extra- 
 ordinary. It has not been the result of exemplary patience, as its 
 occasional growl through the four years has shewn ; it can hardly be be- 
 cause the publications are contemptible ; for, having at length broken 
 silence on three points, he is writing on these with more force, and 
 energy, and spirit, than he has shewn for years ; — thus proving, that, in 
 his estimation, a feeble attempt will not give security to the assailed. 
 Time will shew whether The Watchman intends to defend every position, 
 or whether he will only take under his wing Location, Centralization, 
 and Secularization, which the writers of the Fly Sheets evidently deem 
 to have been productive of great evils in Methodism, and which aggra- 
 vate, as they seem to think, the other evils in our administration against 
 which they have taken up their pens. 
 
 I. LocATTON. Subjoined is the substance of the Fly Sheets on this 
 branch of Wesleyan administration : 
 
 1. It is opposed to the Apostolic plan of spreading Christianity 
 through the earth. 
 
 2. To the spirit and practice of Methodism as introduced and 
 established by its Founder, whose well-known sentiment, " The world 
 is my parish," is often quoted by the located, with whose habits, however, 
 it hardly seems in keeping. Wesley dreaded location. " I beg," says 
 this apostolic man, " my brethren, for the love of God; for the love of 
 me, your old and M'ell nigh worn out servant; for the love of ancient 
 Methodism, which, if itinerancy is interrupted, will speedily come to 
 nothing ; for the love of mercy, justice, and truth, all of which will be 
 grievously violated by any allowed inroads on this system ; I beg that 
 you will exert yourselves to the utmost to preserve our itinerant system 
 unimpaired. It is a shame for any Methodist preacher to confine him- 
 self to one place." And shall any, calling themselves his sons in the 
 gospel, and affecting to be zealous in the maintenance and promotion of 
 the cause which he had at heart, fritter down his system of itinerancy ? 
 Shall a privileged few, who, while lauding Mr. Wesley's plans and pro- 
 cedure, and affecting to be anxious for its conservation, destroy it by 
 locating themselves in London, and by bartering the spirit of ministers 
 of Jesus for one of fleshly ease and sloth ? Spirit of consistency ! whither 
 art thou fled ! 
 
.18 
 
 3. There is a painful incongruity when these located ministers 
 hesitate about tal<ing out young men who offer themselves only for the 
 home work, and manifest also an anxiety to keep their missionary breth- 
 ren out in the foreign field for life. Located ministers are not the men 
 best fitted, though they are among the most forward, to urge these acts 
 of self-denial ; but it is done with an ill grace by any one who, for the best 
 part of a quarter of a century, has been luxuriating in a metropolitan 
 home ! 
 
 4. It prevents a fair distribution of ministerial talent : depriving 
 various parts of the connexion of the diversity of gifts conferred by G-od 
 on ministers for the perfecting of the saints. With regard to the Mis- 
 sionary Secretaries, in particular, What are their congregations? When 
 their pastoral visits ? What have they to do with the regular duties of a 
 Wesleyan preacher ? The office of sending others abroad is converted 
 into a pretext for them to sit down at home. One sermon per Sabbath 
 includes the ordinary ministerial labour calculated on by the metropolitan 
 located, and of this they are often relieved by returned Missionaries and 
 Theological Students. 
 
 5. It is unjust to their brethren who have sustained all the inconve- 
 niences of itinerancy. And what renders the presence of a privileged 
 few so necessary in London as to be located there for a large portion of 
 their ministerial life ? What talents have they for the management of 
 connexional interests, not shared in by hundreds of their brethren ? 
 And why should not these take a fair proportion of the toils and dangers 
 of office, if toils and dangers attach to it ? 
 
 6. Dissatisfaction with itinerancy is a natural consequence. How 
 would men like a poor circuit, a circuit in Dorsetshire or in Cumberland, 
 after the sweets of metropolitan centralization. It is an injury I an 
 invasion of right ! to mention it after long enjoyment of office has almost 
 legalized it in their esteem ! Imitate the located, and itinerancy is at 
 an end ! .Imbibe their spirit, and self indulgence is the order of the 
 day ! And these are itinerants ! These the admirers and eulogists of 
 Wesley! These the great pillars of Methodism ! Why, if their ex- 
 ample prevailed, and had we but funds on which we could depend, inde- 
 pendently of the people, a race of Methodists preachers would arise, 
 whose like would not be found in the Wesleys, Whitfields, Nelsons, and 
 Pawsons, of a golden age, but in lazy, fattening rectors, and obese 
 dignitaries of an established church. And yet, he Avho is tiie great 
 exemplar of location, could ask, in two successive Conferences, why 
 
14 
 
 Mr. Everett, who, for a second time, is forced to become supernumerary, 
 does not again itinerate ; although it is very certain, that, during the 
 summer months, he preaches more sermons than his interrogator does in 
 the whole year ! 
 
 7. Preachers are diverted by it from their original destination. 
 "Whilst there is no small danger of exercising the insolence of office, and 
 of exalting the secular office in themselves over the apostolic office in 
 their itinerant brethren, they are subjected to the almost unavoidable 
 loss of that compassion for men's souls, which constant pulpit exercises 
 are so much calculated to inspire. The longer they are kept in these 
 secular offices, the greater is the danger of their losing the spirit of 
 their calling. What then must be thought of Methodist preachers, 
 who, in the prime of their health, strength, and means of blessing society, 
 have shut themselves up in the metropolis for the last fifteen, twenty, or 
 thirty years, averaging barely one sermon per week ? 
 
 (8.) It makes their ministry insipid : the secularities of their office 
 destroying their taste for pulpit studies, till they come to a persuasion 
 that they have no time for pulpit preparations, and the less they are re- 
 quired to preach, the better they are pleased. Pastoral duties are quite 
 out of the question. 
 
 9. It is the fruitful parent of intrigue : the located employing 
 the influence which their long residence gives them to secure such men 
 in the metropolitan circuits as will chime in with, or not oppose, their 
 measures. Hence, while one preacher, who would be very acceptable 
 to the societies, is studiously kept out of London, another has been 
 hawked about from year to year in London, till the people have been 
 drugged with him. A law made to keep the venerable Henry Moore 
 out of the city, after a limited period, has been violated to keep another 
 in, under the pretext of his being so useful as a treasurer to the funds ; 
 as though it were one of the highest honours of the apostleship to hold 
 the bag, or no other but this one were fit to hold it! When a man is 
 not approved, arguments are always at hand, either to get quit of him, 
 or prevent his station.* 
 
 * A conversation between Doctor Bunting, Mr. J. Scott, (too long located in London,) and 
 another, is thus reported; — This last stated to these two worthies, that, in his judgment, it was 
 a pity that Mr. Bromley had not been appointed to London, as some populai- men were wanted 
 there. "With an unjust and cruel remark that was then made, Mr. Scott chimed in, adding, 
 " Mr. B. must not come to London. We have no coniidence in him ; and no man must come 
 to London who has not the confidence of the leading men." So then, unless a Methodist 
 preacher has wriggled himself into favoui- with Bunting, Scott, clique, and Co., he must be 
 
15 
 
 10. Selfishness, or mere seeking their own. One of the argu- 
 ments for the Missionary Secretaries retaining office from period to 
 period is, that the longer they are in office, the better arc they acquainted 
 with Missionary afPairs. Doubtless. Who questions this ? Apply the 
 principle : the longer a man continues in a circuit, the better he becomes 
 acquainted with the people in it. Now, adopt it ; and good circuits, as 
 in the case of good offices, with easy work and good salaries, will not 
 be often quitted. The argument is an argument for holding office for 
 life! 
 
 1 1 . Location lies at the root of Centralization : furnishing time and 
 opportunity for men to enter into compact with each other, and to work 
 for themselves and one another, to the injury of others. — No. I, p.p. 
 5—10; No. 4, p.p. 7, 8. 
 
 These, in substance, are the points argued in the Fly Sheets, and 
 substantiated by illustrations and facts, as indicating the serious evils to 
 which Location tends, and which it has actually produced. And will 
 any one deny that these are its tendencies ? Is there no force in these 
 suggestions ? Is not Location, if at all necessary, to be closely watched 
 — watched with a godly jealousy, as a very possible inlet to at least 
 eleven very serious evils to Methodism ? Is not our connexion inter- 
 ested in observing the effects which a system, so capable in the hands of 
 the best of men, of great evils, is producing? Is not this a vital ques- 
 tion both to people and to preachers ? Are they enemies of Methodism 
 who sound an alarm now that the system is becoming every year more 
 and more established and extended ? If the evils incident to Location 
 had not made their appearance, it would be wise and prudent to keep in 
 view their possible developement. Or will any one affirm that these 
 alleged evils are not incident to Location ? Or that these allegations are 
 not evils? 
 
 The Watchman professes to take up the question. He has not noticed 
 one of these reasons urged in the Fly Sheets against Location ! Why 
 not ? Has he not seen them ? Does he not know that they are laid down 
 in the publications which have aroused him to the defence of Location 
 and Centralization, and to the vindication of them as not leading to 
 excluded from a London appointment, be his tnlents, his acquirements, his fitness, what they 
 may ! Ai-e none but their serving men to occupy London circuits '? Is London to bo a rendez- 
 vous for their myrmidons ? Is this pettit'ogguig conduct to be the guide of the Stationing 
 Committee'? Wliatever qualifications the Ileod of tlie Church has given a man, ai'o they less 
 than nothing, if he has the misfortmie (?) not to be a pet of the Mission House ? 
 
10 
 
 Secularization? Why then has he not grappled with these arguments? 
 His argument shall be examined presently. But the question arises, 
 Why, as he has undertaken the defence of Location in opposition to the 
 views urged in the Fly Sheets, did he not grapple with the arguments 
 contained therein? He has not done so. They remain, each one, 
 untouched. Whether they are weak or strong, truthful or sophistical, 
 real or imaginary, he has passed them by, as soldiers have been known 
 to pass by a castle which, it may be, would have proved too strongly 
 fortified to yield to their forces. 
 
 What does The Watchman urge in defence of Location, notwithstand- 
 ing the evils which it may bring upon the connexion ? — Nov. 1, 1848. He 
 defines it, correctly enough, as " the continuous occupancy of office by 
 the same individuals, which leads to their settled residence in the same 
 place." He then enquires, " Would a regular and systematic removal 
 of individuals from office at the end of ... six years be advantageous to 
 the Institutions of Methodism ? We are not prepared to answer that 
 question in the affirmative." He then proceeds to notice our several 
 Institutions; and, on his observations respecting the principal of them, 
 some remarks shall be made. 
 
 In the Book-Room department he " more than doubts " whether 
 the regular enforcement of the rule for six years service would be for 
 the advantage of our periodical literature, as " Editorial habits can only 
 be formed by experience." He '' can conceive cases in which it would 
 be very unwise" thus to remove "a minister from the Editorship." 
 Cases too can be conceived in which it would be very unwise not to 
 remove an Editor, long before his time of service had expired. Some may 
 think that it vv^ould have been for the advantage of our periodical literature, 
 if there had been a more frequent change in the editorship ; on the 
 efficiency and skill of our editorial staff, he must know, that different 
 men have different views. Besides, if Location here were beneficial to 
 our literary interests, does it follow that it would be beneficial to our 
 spiritual interests? And if in a pecuniary, or literary point of view, 
 the Book-Room be a gainer by it, may not this gain be obtained at the 
 expense of the Editor, who may degenerate from a minister of Christ 
 into a literary man ; who, amid the charms and delights of literary pur- 
 suits, to which his release from almost all ministerial duty gives him full 
 leisure, may be lured from the paths of an experimental and practical 
 theology into the attractive walks of secular science ? Besides, there is 
 another official in the Book-Room, as well as the Editor — the Book 
 
17 
 
 Steward, whose office is exclusively secular, and who is necessarily up 
 to his eyes in business all the year through, as much so as any London 
 citizen. The argument derived from experience, which, in this case, is 
 of force, is rather an argument for putting the business department of 
 the Book-Room under the management of a layman, and not of a minis- 
 ter, whose habits, if he will maintain the ministerial spirit, are almost, if 
 not quite, irreconcilable with the intense attention to business matters 
 which the superintendence of so vast a secular concern must demand. 
 
 " A similar difficulty presents itself in reference to the Missionary 
 SECRETARYSHIP... .A lengthened practical acquaintance with which 
 appears to be indispensably necessary to the prosecution of an intelligent 
 and consistent plan of operation." For this opinion The Watchman 
 offers no reason, and merely cites the happy result of our intervention 
 with New Zealand, as a case in point. There would be more shew of 
 force in The Watchman's view, if our principles, as a ?vlissionary Society, 
 were not fixed and settled ; or if the line of things were not marked out 
 for our officials ; and, on the same ground, he should argue for a standing 
 Committee ; for, no doubt, the same seculars and the same Committee, 
 working together uninteruptedly, could more effectually work out one 
 uniform plan of operations. Let a national administration continue 
 holding the reins, and it is obvious that they have thereby a better oppor- 
 tunity of carrying out one consistent plan. But will it not suggest itself 
 to The Watchman, that the argument cuts two ways; that this 
 perpetuity of office allows opportunities and facilities for carrying on a 
 plan of operations not exactly consistent with the original design of the 
 society ; and that if the officials are not chargeable with this conduct, their 
 mode of carrying out its recognised principles may not be the most intelli- 
 gent and fitting ? No head carries all wisdom. The most comprehensive 
 mind is too apt gradually to take a one-sided view of matters : the intro- 
 duction of an inferior mind into the council may be the means of suggest- 
 ing modes of ope ration never before thought of, and of forming a happy 
 innovation upon, or an invaluable addition to, a plan of uniformity to 
 which an unconscious partiality is too strongly attached. Besides, there 
 is some space intermediate between extremes : if it were merely a ques- 
 tion between incessant change and absolute permanency, decision would 
 be hopelessly difficult. We are not reduced to this necessity. To a 
 great extent the advantages of the one may be secured, and the evils of 
 the other effectually prevented : the advantages of experience may be 
 had, and the dangers of location avoided. Let one Secretary retire 
 
18 
 
 every two years ; let a new man be as often initiated into the difficulties 
 and duties of the office ; the official succession will secure, in a high de- 
 gree, means for a continual and uniform plan of operation ; and the 
 before-named evils, of a personal succession, will be very effectually 
 guarded against. 
 
 " The Theological Tutorship must be subjected to the same style 
 of remark." And the same style of reply will be applicable, and with 
 much more force ; for it would be a severe reflection on the body of our 
 ministers to suggest, that, though hundreds of them have been studying 
 theology for twenty, thirty, or forty years, they are so little proficient in 
 it that a minister or two must be abstracted from his work until he forms 
 habits not at all favourable for resuming it, because of the paucity of 
 men capable of giving Theological lectures to comparatively raw young 
 men ! This is incredible ! Many of our ministers could furnish for 
 three years a sufficiently ample, elaborate, and comprehensive system of 
 divinity lectures, without recourse being had to a location of more than 
 three years. This would not only diminish the evils of Location, but 
 also prevent another, in reference to which many fears are entertained — 
 a stereotyped theology — bearing too plainly evidence, that the students 
 are only Hke two presses, throwing off multiplied copies of two editions 
 of a standard work. If moulds cannot be dispensed with, let an imitation 
 of nature that delights in variety, and more obviously abhors uniformity 
 than a vaccuum, be the model. The Theological Tutor is not the only 
 Tutor. Still less can be said for the permanency of the office of the 
 Classical and of the Mathematical Tutor. A clear and well put argu- 
 ment from The Watchman, or from any other source, proving, by good 
 logic, the necessity or the wisdom of appointing a man called to save 
 souls from hell, to the work of teaching The Rule of Three, Practice, 
 or Euclid, or Valpy's Grammar and Delectus, would well deserve to 
 be published with all the eclat of a " Prize Essay." To the whole of 
 this argument there is this fourfold answer ; — 
 
 1. The Watchman overlooks the fact, that his argument is one for 
 converting these into life offices. 
 
 2. That this is a question of comparative advantages and disadvantages. 
 It is not denied that the locating system has its advantages. To these 
 exclusively does The Watchman direct the attention of its readers ; in- 
 stead of meeting, as it would have been wisdom in him to do, the cata- 
 logue of evils which Location, in the best ordered community, is likely 
 to entail on a religious body. He pleads as counsel where he should sum 
 
19 
 
 up as judge. Besides, whoever said, that, under no circumstances what- 
 ever, should any case of re-election be allowed? The Watchman raises 
 a wind-mill, and has the pleasure of knocking it down. An emergency, 
 for instance, may occur, when it becomes desirable to deviate from the 
 established Rule. But the deviations have become so numerous, so 
 common, as to make the law a dead letter. Would not Mr. 
 Wesley have had the officers changed, as he required the stations of the 
 preachers to be changed ? The principle of change was thought of in every 
 thing belonging to Methodism. Ministers must leave their circuits at 
 the end of three years ; and towns, (except in the case of Mr. John Scott,) 
 at the end of six years. Whatever influence they have acquired, it must 
 be sacrificed. And what if something be sacrificed at the Mission House, 
 as well as at the other great seats of Location ? Might not the good 
 resulting quite compensate for the partial loss ? 
 
 3. That, whatever apparent advantages may accrue to the body in the 
 management of its Institutions, by ministers long-continued in these 
 offices, the officials themselves are likely — such is poor human nature — 
 to suffer seriously in their ministeral and most important character. 
 
 4. That the question is really not of holding office for six years, but 
 of holding office six years upon six, and six upon another six ; and thus 
 nd infinitum. 
 
 " Till about nine years ago, the appointment of Missionary Secreta- 
 ries, as well as of Editor, Book-Steward, &c., was limited to six years. 
 There appears to have been sound wisdom in this. But it did not suit 
 the views of some in office, who had made up their minds to a life-ap- 
 pointment in the metropoUs. At the Birmingham Conference, there- 
 fore, a proposition was brought forward, substantially, to make these 
 offices for life.... The arguments adduced were some of the most flimsy 
 that a deliberative assembly ever listened to. But the spirit of the 
 Conference was, at that time, at its lowest ebb. A little, and but a little, 
 was said against it: only two hands were held up in opposition. Were 
 there only two men in such an assembly capable of perceiving how such 
 a measure would work? We cannot believe it. But, if there were 
 dissentients, they remained in silent neutrality. That, in its practical 
 workings, it makes these offices substantially for life is too plain to be 
 questioned. Every six years the solemn farce of deliberation takes 
 place, — ' Whether there exist sufficient reasons for recommending to 
 Conference another six years of office.' Have they, in any one instance, 
 failed to find the required reasons ? Never ! Did any man in his senses 
 
20 
 
 ever believe they would fail to find the reasons ? If such a man there be, 
 he may take to himself the credit of enormous credulity — Our own 
 impression is, that things will never be on a safe footing until the Secre- 
 taries, Editors, and all the rest, are chosen by the free votes of their 
 brethren.* The way in which they are chosen now is disgraceful: fifty, 
 sixty, or seventy hold up their hands — two hundred remain quiescent ! ' 
 And this is called a unanimous vote ! It may be said, that there is the 
 utmost liberty given to any one who thinks proper to hold up his hand 
 against the election. Yes, very true. But who, except in a very ex- 
 treme case, would like to appear as the opponent of a man for whom he 
 is bound to cherish friendly sentiments, who is, or has been, or may be, 
 his colleague in the ministry." — F. S., No. 2, p.p. 19, 20. 
 
 The Watchman next enquires, " What has actually been the practice 
 of the Conference in making its official appointments : and is the modern 
 re-appointment to office an innovation on early Methodism ? " Now, it 
 is remarkable that the only rule on the subject dates no higher than 1836, 
 and so far tends to support the theory of the Fly Sheets, that the system 
 of Location is a growing system, and is assuming gigantic proportions ; 
 and, consequently, that the evils arising out of it are in a course of 
 multiplication and aggravation. Except in the solitary case of Book- 
 Steward, it formed no portion of " early Methodism. "f Modern Loca- 
 tion and Wesleyan Itinerancy are the antipodes of each other. Modern 
 Location abstracting numbers — and this increasingly year by year, from 
 the ministry — and a solitary instance of a Location under Wesley, are as 
 far as the poles asunder. Modern Location, that can sum up a score of 
 little short of thirty years ! Why, did it enter the head of Wesley that 
 Methodism would ever so far' decline from its " early," its primitive, its 
 apostolic spirit, as to locate a man amid much that is secularizing for 
 more than half his ministerial life? " The spirit of early Methodism," 
 does this illustrate? What! of that period when, with saddle-bags 
 stored with furniture for brain and for back, the genuine sons of Wesley 
 traversed counties as their '' rounds," and rarely occupied even the 
 same extensive circuit two years in succession, and as seriously thought 
 
 * For explanntion of this, see Uie section on "Vote by Ballot," or "the Core and Cure of 
 Misrule." 
 
 + The Watchman, apparently to answer a purpose, speaks of Doctor Clarke's successive ap- 
 pointment in London, from 1805 to 1815, as illustrative of the spirit of " early Methodism." 
 It hardly belongs to the period of earhj IMethodism. It would more properly be placed in the 
 latter pait of our medioeval age. It belongs to the period, when, in the judgment of the Fly- 
 Sheet writers, the policy against which their pamphlets are dnected, began to work. Tliis can 
 hardly be taken as an illustration of the spult of earltf Tilethodism. 
 
21 
 
 of locating themselves in Westminster Hall, or in Buckingham Palace, 
 for life, as of locating themselves in Manchester, or in London, for the 
 quarter of a century! This " illustrative of the spirit of early ]\Iethod- 
 ism ! " Shades of departed worthies, who in your truly itinerant labours 
 for souls, had no certain dwelhng-place, but were sojourners and pilgrims, 
 well may ye complain, that, after all your self-denying toils and services, 
 a professed friend should have dishonoured your hallowed memories, by 
 holding up the location ye detested, as an illustration of your devoted 
 and apostolic spirit ! 
 
 The Watchman draws out a formidable looking catalogue of names of 
 ministers who have been successively located by appointment of Con- 
 ference. The list is formidable only in appearance. The list confirms 
 the truth of the Fly Sheets on this point. Alas, for The Watchman 1 
 If his list furnishes no " wise saws," it aboundeih in " modern instances !" 
 With one exception, all of them date subsequently to the death of Wesley ! 
 Admirable period from which to draw illustrations of the primitive spirit 
 of Methodism, and of the pi'actice of the Conference from the begin- 
 ning ! " With the view of comparing the present location of officers, 
 so loudly complained of in certain quarters, with the practice of Confer- 
 ence at a former period, we have carefully gone over all the published 
 Minutes of the Conference, from the life-time of Mr. Wesley, and have 
 been somewhat surprised to fiad^ that the re-appointment of the same 
 persons to office, beyond the ordinary term specified by rule, does not 
 furnish the least plausible occasion for the loud complaint that a departure 
 has taken place from the practice of the connexion in the earlier periods 
 of its historTj." And the first instance on which The Watchman alights 
 in support of this statement — the first case he gives of re-appointment 
 after the term of off.ce is expired — is the case of Mr. Robert Smith, 
 appointed Governor of Kingswood School in 1820, and continued in 
 that office till 1843 ! ! He must have been sorely driven into a corner, 
 when the Governorship of Kingswood School, in 1827, is the nearest 
 post into which he can throw his forlorn charge for security ! In his 
 long array of names connected with the Mission House, he has not, on 
 his own shelving^ a single case in point, up to the year 1834 ! ! ! The 
 spirit of " early Methodism! " The Watchman brings up as his rear- 
 guard, the Book-Room. Here he has power. Softly. Sift him ; and 
 his forces, though strong in appearance, are mere illusions, — such as the 
 sky in some countries occasionally presents, alarming the ignorant as 
 prognostications of wars and desolation, when armed men, in true 
 
22 
 
 military array, appear in the illusive clouds. It is true that Mr. Whit- 
 field was appointed by our venerable Founder to the office of Book- 
 Steward in 1789— very shortly before his death— and that he continued 
 in that office till 1 805. Does The Watchman mean to intimate that Mr. 
 Wesley would have sanctioned his continuance in office for sixteen years ? 
 Can he believe it ? Will the body believe it ? Location, The Watchman 
 being witness, dates from after Mr. Weslei/s death. It is no part what' 
 ever of Methodism, as left to us by John Wesley. It was not his spirit. 
 It bears none of the marks of his genius. His '' master-hand" is not in 
 it. It was alien to his habits : it was inconsistent with his zeal for 
 souls.* It savoured too much of love of ease. John Wesley and 
 Location ! Methodism in Wesley's days and Location ! It is like 
 yoking together the noble horse of Arabia and a collier's ass. It is like 
 associating Howard and inhumanity ; Paul and the farmer-like possessor 
 of a good fat rectory! "Mr. T. Blanshard succeeded in 1808, and 
 remained in that situation until. ..1824." In 1827 Mr. Mason succeeded, 
 and has continued ever since. "Mr. G. Storey was appointed ' cor- 
 rector of the Press 'in 1793, ...and continued in office till 1804, when 
 he became manager of the Printing Office until the year 1808.f Mr. 
 
 * " The time of Mr. Wesley spent in travelling," says one of his biogi-aphers, " was not lost. 
 ' History, poetiy, and philosophy,' said he, I commonly read on horseback, having other em- 
 ployment at other times.' He used to throw the reins on his horse's neck ; and in this way he 
 rode, in the course of his hfe, above a hundred thousand miles." — Southey, Vol. II., p. 539. 
 Mr. Wesley, in the seventy-second year of his age, referring to his excellent health and spirits, 
 observes — " The chief mearas are, my constantly rising at four for about tifty yeai-s ; my generally 
 preaching at five in the morning — one of the most healthy exercises in the world ; my never 
 travelling less, by sea or land, than four thoiosand Jive hundred miles in a year." — Journals. 
 Take into connection with this, his preaching two or three times in a day — cliiefly travelling on 
 horse-back — all weathers — on unmacadamized roads — and ask how it bears on the feather-bed 
 system of Location. — On completing his eighty-third year, Mr. Wesley remarks again, " I am 
 never tu-ed, (such is the goodness of God,) either with writing, preaching, or travelling. One 
 natural cause, undoubtedly, is, my continual exercise and change of air.'' A little change of 
 air and exercise would do om- locators good. Doctor Coke, speaking of the evil in America, 
 obsei-ves, " The location of so many scores of our most able and experienced preachers tears 
 my very heart in pieces." 
 
 t " About two years before Mr. Wesley's death, Mr. T. Olivers being deemed unfit to be 
 continued editor of the Arminian Magazine, Mr. Wesley introduced the subject of a successor 
 
 to him into the Conference. Mr. Eradburn named Mr. Moore Mr. Wesley was silent, as he 
 
 would never propose to any one to leave the itinerancy wliile in health to continue it. Mr. 
 Moore promptly repUed, that he hoped to live and die a travelling preacher; and that he 
 would not accept of any office which would militate against, what he deemed, his higher, holier, 
 and more imperative duty. If ' with the ancients is wisdom,' then this, uttered in the pre- 
 sence of Mr. Wesley, ought to settle deep into the spirit of the great Locator of other locators." 
 — Fly Sheets, No. 1, p. 5. 
 
23 
 
 Benson succeeded to the same post, from which death removed him in 
 1821, in the seventeenth year of his official labours. Mr. Bunting, at 
 that time Missionary Secretary, performed the duties of the Editorship 
 till 1824, when Mr. T. Jackson entered upon the office, who held it 
 until the year 1842." This is all that The Watchman can shew ! That 
 in modern Methodism Location was born, and that in modern Methodism 
 Location has been very prolific ! The very facts which the Fly Sheets 
 affirm, and for which the Fly Sheets are so severely censured ! The 
 defendant's witness proves the case for the prosecution ! His own testi- 
 mony secures the verdict for his opponent ! 
 
 And mark this ! These cases of Location, especially for any length 
 of time — for Mr. R. Lomas, who succeeded Mr. Whitfield, only held 
 the office four years, and Mr. Kershaw, who succeeded Mr. Blanshard 
 only held it for the same period — belong to the period in which the 
 writers of the Fly Sheets say, that, under the hand of a distinguished 
 member of the body, the system of Location, Centralization, and Secu- 
 larization, has been fearfully and most injuriously developed. And are 
 they not sustained in their view by the opinion of one of the Presidents 
 of the Conference, as quoted in the Fly Sheets? *' During this period, 
 (the last thirty years,) our legislation bears intrinsic evidence of being 
 the production of one superior mind : other parties may have contributed 
 original suggestions and emendations ; but it is obvious, that one master 
 hand has framed the great majority of the acts of the Conference." — 
 Grindrod's Compendium. Intro, p.p. 15, 16. 
 
 And, mark another fact ! Location at first, and Location as now 
 existing, differ materially ; more than the child differs from the adult. 
 For instance, Dr. Clarke, or Mr. Benson filling, for fourteen years, the 
 office of Editor, hardly filled the pulpit any the less! It was not then 
 considered that one sermon a week was the maximum of a located minis- 
 ter's preaching duty. It was not thought then, that to renew the 
 tickets of a class after preaching on the Sabbath forenoon was more than 
 could be expected from, or would be done by, a located minister! The 
 located, when the system arose, and in some degree was found necessary, 
 were still considered Methodist preachers, and the offices were considered 
 additional, not substitutionary, to that of the ministry. Is this the case 
 in 1848 ? Notoriously not ! It is common talk, and lias been for years, 
 in London, how seldom some of our officials preach. Surprise has often 
 been expressed as to the views they can take of their divine call to the 
 ministry. Wonder has again and again been expressed, that, being for 
 
24 
 
 years located in the dense population of the metropolis, they have shewn 
 so little zeal for its perishing masses, by the rare instances in which they 
 have occupied the metropolitan pulpits, and the readiness with which 
 they have availed themselves of substitutes. Nor can they be surprised 
 that these opinions prevail. 
 
 In the face of all this, The Watchman can make this exclamation : 
 " This result of our examination of the official publications of the 
 connexion is, we candidly acknowledge, in some degree, different from 
 what we expected. Having never before looked into the Minutes of 
 Conference with any such reference, the confident assertions of a party 
 had made upon our minds an impression, that some departure from the 
 practice of earlier times, had doubtless taken place, which, however 
 justifiable in itself, afforded at least the semblance of argument to those 
 who complain of modern innovation. But the illusion which has doubt- 
 less been produced in other minds as well as our own, by the boldness 
 and effrontery which have been displayed upon the subject, is at once 
 dissipated by an appeal to the official records of the body. (! ! !) The 
 modern practice of continuing the same men in office, we are told, must 
 be abandoned, and the practice of an earlier and purer age be restored. 
 But who will undertake to point out that purer age, in the face of the 
 fact, that the entire history of Methodism, since Mr. Wesley's days, 
 affords only one instance in which an individual has been removed from 
 office by the application of Conference Rule ? " — A Rule^ be it observed, 
 passed in so early a period of our history as the year 1836 /// * 
 
 The Watchman's third point on Location may be dismissed with a 
 sentence : " The re-appointment of the same persons to office is not their 
 own act, but the act of the Conference." True ; and the remarks upon 
 Connexional and Nomination Committees, which appear in a subsequent 
 page, will probably throw light upon this point. 
 
 It is well that the Fly Sheets have called the attention of the body to 
 the locative system. For this they are deserving of praise. It will lead 
 
 * " Mr. ^Vatson bad now for six years discliai-ged the duties of Eesideut Secretarj-, and be- 
 yond tlds period the Rules of the Connexion would not allow him to continue in office. He, 
 himself, was also desirous of resuming the full lahours of the Christian jili7iistry, which he 
 regarded as his proper calling.'' — Jackson's Life, p. 453. 
 
 " PeiTuit me to say, that in Mr. Watson's last appointment to office, as Mr. James' turn was 
 expiring, it became a subject of discussion whether it would be proper to seek a re-appointment 
 for that justly esteemed man ; and I ktiow-^for I was in circumstances to know — that he 
 resolutely opposed the proposition. There must have been some principle in this, for his re- 
 gard for Mr. James amounted to more than friendship, — he entertained towards him the most 
 ardent affection."— Doctor DLxon's letter to the Watchman, of Nov, 8, 1848, 
 
25 
 
 to discussion. Some fixtures will be removed : other fixtures will be 
 prevented. The question having been mooted, and The Watchman 
 having shewn so earnest and warm a zeal, but having made so weak a 
 defence of it, a more vigilant eye will be kept upon it, and it will only 
 be allowed where some extraordinary train of circumstances vindicate a 
 departure from a line of things essential to the itinerancy of Methodism. 
 The subjoined list of the Metropolitan located will probably surprise 
 many, who have no idea that several of our ministers have spent a great 
 — and, in some instances, the greater — part of their ministerial life in 
 London. The facts are taken from Hill's Arrangement ; and the mode 
 in which the appointments are arranged in that work will strike every 
 reader, who is entreated to get the work and read for himself. 
 
 Mr. T. Jacksox has been located in London from 1821 — a period of 28 years! 
 Mr. Mason „ 
 
 Dr. Buntixg „ 
 
 Mr. Hoole „ 
 
 Mb. Beecham „ 
 
 Dr. Alder „ ■ 
 
 Mr. Cubitt „ 
 
 Mr. Scott , „ 
 
 And who of these is not a laudator of Wesley ? Of primitive Method- 
 ism ? Who, than these, are more earnest censurers of all innovators on 
 Methodism ?f And is this no innovation ? Was the like to this con- 
 templated by the great man who, under God, founded Methodism, when, 
 in 1789, he appointed a B ook- Steward ? And will The Watchman 
 publish the above list? analyse it? defend it? justify it ? It will be a 
 tough job for any man to do, on Wesleyan, Itinerant, Primitive princi- 
 
 * Tliis does not include Doctor Bunting's first appointment to London, wluch would vdtL 
 propriety be noted as Location. 
 
 + " On a young preacher being named at Conference, whose miuistiy had been crowned with 
 success, Doctor Bunting observed, that if we had more men like him, we should have no occa- 
 sion for Mr. Caughey ; forgetting, that, if himself and others located and seculariiied in Lou- 
 don, were to go forth as labourers, there would be still less need of such men When com- 
 plaints were uttered of a want of minsterial success through the year, both in the Coulerenco 
 and in the Missionaiy Committee, Doctor Beaumont obsen'ed, by way of putting down tlie 
 frivolous apologies and causes resoiled to, that, what was most wanted in tlie conncvion was, a 
 spirit of deeper solicitude for souls, and a lai-gor class of labourei-s— men of toil and effort in 
 the work. Doctor Bunting, who felt where tliis touched, and knew how it might be directed 
 against himself and other located seculars in the metropolis, said, that there was no substantiid 
 C 
 
 1823 
 
 j> 
 
 26 years! 
 
 1815—1823 
 
 3) 
 
 ^ 
 
 and 1833—1848 
 
 J» 
 
 [ 25 years!* 
 
 1829 
 
 )} 
 
 20 years! 
 
 1831 
 
 )> 
 
 18 years! 
 
 1833 
 
 JJ 
 
 16 years! 
 
 1833 
 
 3J 
 
 16 years! 
 
 1836 
 
 » 
 
 13 years! 
 
2G 
 
 pies ! Let some hand try its skill ; and a demonstration here will make 
 a man Senior Wrangler for the age ! 
 
 But Location, with its ills, does not stand alone. It is not a upas tree 
 growing in the desert. It is not a wild and ravenous beast of prey that 
 only brings forth one birth at a time, and that at long intervals. It is 
 the more to be dreaded because it is intertwined with, and has given birth 
 to, Centralization and Secularization ; — two other giant evils, which, as 
 stated by the Fly Sheets, and as defended by The (valorous) Watchman, 
 shall now be laid before the reader. 
 
 II. Centralization. " This," say the Fly Sheets, "is an advance 
 upon Location ; inasmuch as the individual only may be located : but 
 here we refer to a number of persons thrown together for specific objects ; 
 and the objects themselves advanced as a plea for binding them to the 
 spot." The instances in which centrahzation appears are thus enume- 
 rated and stated in the obnoxious " Sheets" : — 
 
 1. The Book-Room. This is of ancient date ; and as its necessity 
 will be admitted by all, so its evils, arising from undue influence, were 
 few, from the fact of the committee being repeatedly changed, and the 
 members of it having formerly only two located brethren to contend 
 with, viz., the Editor and Book-Steward. Still, even here, there is a 
 tyranny very often exercised by the Book-Steward, owing to too long 
 continuance in otfice, excessively annoying to the brethren. 
 
 2. The Committee of Privileges. We have this in the Metro- 
 polis, with its officers, meetings, and paraphernalia ; and, in different 
 periods of its history, we find it graced with the names of Doctor Ben- 
 nett, &c. 
 
 3. The Missions. Here is the great starting point of abuse ; and 
 the occasion was seized with avidity by Mr. Bunting. He was the first 
 
 proof that the piety of the Wesleyans was decliuing— hliuding his hearers, by shifting the point 
 of Dr. Beaumont's remark respecting ministerial kibourers to the people — and that wo were in 
 danger of discom-aging one another— obliquely looking at the elfects which the Fly Sheets might 
 have on the minds of otliers respecting-himself and his colleagues who are not bmahcned with la- 
 bour. . Different proposals were submitted to the Conference by Mcssis. Fowler, Ve vers, Cusworth, 
 and Doctor Beaumont, to till up the ranks; and, among other measures, it was recommended 
 that young men should be taken out of the Institution, rather than that the work should be 
 impeded, — Doctor Beaumont concluding an impassioned burst of eloquence with—' Loose them, 
 and let them go, for the Lord hath need of them.' Doctor Bunting sarcastically replied, ' You 
 may loose the asses, and let them go.' Doctor Beaumont retorted with liis usual quickness and 
 force,—' There is a higher and a lower analogy, and a chiistian minister ought never to take tho 
 li>wer, when the higher is within Lis reach.' This pinched, as well it might."— F. S., No. 3, p. 29^ 
 
27 
 
 to propose a house and office for the Missionary Secretary : he knew what 
 he was doing. Mr. Benson argued strongly against the measure, and 
 cautioned the Conference against what he termed ' Brother Bunting's 
 colouring.' The latter, however, gained the day, and obtained a settle- 
 ment by the plan, as, indeed, he has profited by most of his other 
 schemes." 
 
 4. The Meetings of the Connexional Committees held in the 
 intervals of Conference. We ask, was this the case before Doctor 
 Bunting rose to power ? Or, would it be the case now, if he was not 
 located in the city? So, to suit his purposes, the freedom and well- 
 being of the body must be menaced, by placing the strings by which the 
 machinery of Methodism is to be regulated, either immediately in his 
 hand, or constantly within his reach !* 
 
 5. The President. The practice of removing the in-coming Pre- 
 sident to London is ' part and parcel ' of Doctor Bunting's policy ; and 
 this appears to have been projected from interested motives, — that he 
 might place himself the more plausibly in the seat of state ; and the 
 honour applying to others, as well as himself, he was, of course, the less 
 suspected in strenuously wishing it. Doctor Newton is an exception ; 
 but the reason to be assigned is, that his good lady prefers the country ! 
 
 6. The Theological Institution. This, with its officers and stu- 
 dents, is employed to serve and save the Secretaries and others from the 
 toils of the ministry. A branch, it is true, has been established at 
 
 * " We had intended, by way of strengthening our position, to offer a few remarks on the con- 
 duct of the united coramittees, which met in London, April, 1847, on the Educational Measure 
 brought before parliament. When Graham's Factory Bill was before the public, preachers and 
 laymen, from different pai'ts of the kingdom, were invited to attend ; and no less tlian u'OO 
 representatives of the people were present on that occasion. On tJie occasion of 1817, to whioli 
 we now refer, we have Doctor Bunting's narrowing system carried out. Why was every tiling 
 here done silently ? Why was a promise of secrecy imposed on all the members? Had the 
 hundreds of thousands of Wesleyans out of doors nothing at stake ? To say that the committee 
 represents the people, when they thus studiously hide their intentions from them, is a solecism. 
 Why were not the views and decisions laid before the people ? The course to be taken I'V n 
 committee representing a large body, is, frequently to give opportunities for the intei-cliariL;f of 
 sympatliy and opinion with their constituents — to communicate fully and freely with them — and, 
 at every stage of then* labours, to make the fullest statements of their progress. Especinlly, 
 should a new featm-e of the case turn up, is there a double necessity for communicating it to 
 their constituents, and taking their sense on the subject. But here we have two comparatively 
 small packed committees, chiefly composed af Doctor Bunting's friends and favourites— silting 
 ■with closed doors— under promise of secresy — trifling with the interests of the people' — deciding 
 on nothing— and linally letting the people into the secret of their non-doings, at the last boar. 
 when there was no time to give expression to public opinion, cither for or against the measure. 
 ... .Men of Israel, get lid of every Buntingian Committee!" — Fly Sheets, No. 3, p. i7. 
 
28 
 
 Didsbury ; but still tbe parent expects to have homcage rendered to it in 
 the metropolis ; and the President of both must there also sway the 
 sceptre ; not forgetting, that the branch has been delightfully located in 
 the centre of Doctor Bunting's lay supporters." 
 
 "7. The assumed authority of the London District. 
 
 (1.) In issuing tests to all other District Committees, as in Doctor 
 Warren's case ; to the principle of which some of the brethren objected, 
 and for which they were black-balled, though among the brightest orna- 
 ments and firmest supporters of Methodism. Doctor Beaumont is an 
 example, who, when proposed as a member of the ' Hundred,' was 
 objected to by Mr. Grindrod, because he did not sign the ' Decla- 
 ration,' and so vest the London Committee with the authority of a 
 Conference ! 
 
 (2.) In taking upon themselves the office, and assuming the right, to 
 catechise the members of other Districts, as in the case of the ' Wesleyan 
 Takings.' We are credibly informed that the three brethren who 
 refused to reply to the interrogatories of the clique respecting author- 
 ship, did it, first, to impose a check on the usurped authority of the 
 London District ; and, secondly, to prevent the establishment of an 
 Inquisition in the body. For this Doctor Beaumont, Messrs. Burdsall 
 and Everett, deserve the thanks of their brethren ; — aye, and on a 
 future day, will be lauded for the act ; having saved the Connexion from 
 an Inquisition. How humiliating that Mr. Dixon, the President, should 
 be compelled, at the instigation of Doctor Bunting, to leave the Presi- 
 dental chair, in the presence of his brethren, and then, like a criminal, 
 wash his hands of the imputation of authorship ! What a spectacle ! 
 
 (3.) In sanctioning in their collective form, and in their official 
 character, schisms in other sections of the Christian community, as in the 
 case of the Free Church of Scotland, before the sense of Conference 
 could be obtained. Look at the virtual expulsion of Joseph R. Stephens 
 in 1834, for withstanding church-rates, and compare it with the opening 
 of our chapels in 1844 for public meetings in aid of the Scotch Free 
 Church ; in which public meetings the Scotch Free Church advocates 
 attacked the Establishment with strength and acrimony of which Ste- 
 phens was incapable. What a pity that Doctor Bunting did not shield 
 Joseph as well as the Free Church, instead of drawing up the resolutions 
 against him ! If the Free Church was patted on the head, certainly the 
 latter ought to have escaped being thrown overboard." 
 
29 
 
 " 8. The Final Examination of Candidates for the Ministry. When 
 this was first proposed, Mr. Vevers and others opposed it. And well 
 they might. 
 
 (I.) It goes on the supposition, that the London brethren are the 
 men, and wisdom will die with them. 
 
 (2,) It is a reflection on all the other Districts, and especially the 
 more respectable, which entertain the Conference, and in which men of 
 first-rate talents are to be found. 
 
 " The last measure, like many other startling measures, was stealthily 
 brought in at the close of Conference, when many of the brethren had 
 left, and others were jaded with its heat and toil ; but was afterwards 
 denuded, of course, of its worst features." — F. S., No. I, p.p. 17, 18. 
 And the writers might have added, — 
 
 9. The Educational Committee, whose movements have been so 
 tortuous, and whose decisions are about to inflict so heavy an annual 
 expense upon our burthened connexion. In order that Mr. Scott, the 
 chairman of this com.mittee, may remain in London, the rule of limita- 
 tion is violated by this stickler for rule ; and that he may be released 
 from all pulpit duty, save on the Sabbath, he is favoured with a curate 
 at the expense of the Contingent Fund. 
 
 Now, can any one wonder, that, where there is such a concentration of 
 office and power as the bare enumeration just given unfolds, there should 
 be in the body, men who have a holy jealousy of this concentration of 
 influence being abused ? Or, will it overwhelm with surprise any one 
 read in history, whether profime or of the Church, that the persons into 
 whose hands this executive has fallen, have been, in some measure, per- 
 verted from their simplicity, humility, meekness, and disinterestedness ? 
 They would be more than human if they had not. Their clean escape 
 from the uniform and universal influence for evil which, in any condition 
 of society, vast power in human hands has developed, would have made 
 their administration an exception to all history — a solitary oasis in a wide 
 spread desert. Has this wonder of the world occurred ? Is this rare 
 bird — strange in history as a black swan in the old world — to be found 
 in the pure, open, above-board, impartial, meek administration of 
 Wesleyan Centralization ? The Fly Sheets reply in the negative. Their 
 indictment of this system, and their evidence in support of the indict- 
 ment, shall be adduced ; the defence of The Watchman shall then be 
 heard ; and without the formality of a " summing up," the jury— the 
 
80 
 
 Wesleyan Public, brought by this pamphlet into court — shall retire to 
 consider their verdict. 
 
 The Fly Sheets affirm " the baneful influence which Centralization 
 has on the Conference, constituting in itself, as some of the preachers 
 observe, a Conference within a Conference ; the latter forming only the 
 outer circle, into M'hich the brethren are admitted, with little or no 
 power, and with but a partial knowledge of the wheels that work the 
 machinery," 
 
 " The old preachers, on the death of Mr. Wesley, before Methodism 
 had reached maturity, in the change of officers, had comparatively little 
 power in giving effect to their choice of men and measures. Doctor 
 Bunting has been driven to more elaborate means in choosing men, and, 
 therefore, has resorted, by his Nomination Committee, to the form of 
 close nomination, as in civil affairs in the twelfth 'century ; for, though 
 his chosen men have to pass the Conference, all is settled beforehand by 
 the centralized band in London; and then, to give form and legality 
 to the whole, the several measures are gracefully proposed by them, 
 either in committee or from the platform ; so that the Conference Plat- 
 form becomes, practically, a stifler of the spirit of freedom, in whatever 
 form it periodically exists ; being, with few exceptions, m.ostly composed 
 of the same individuals, in consequence of the manceuvres and power 
 of the London clique." 
 
 " The Centralization System leads to — 
 
 1 . Tyranny. The party domineer and ride over the heads of others. 
 
 Methodism with all its excellencies is admirably adapted, when 
 
 abused, for selfish, personal, and arbitrary ends. This receives an 
 
 illustration in the Grand Centenary Hall in London. In the course of 
 its erection, there were four or five committees (sitting co-temporary) 
 yet one committee did not know what another committee was doing — 
 no, nor any of the members of the several committees, with the excep- 
 tion of the centralizing Doctor himself,* who contrived to put himself in 
 
 * " As a proof of Lis exasperated feelings, he opposed the decision of no less than three 
 
 committees, (at the Conference of 184G,) CommiLtees had comprehended one of the aecrels 
 
 of his strength, and to oppose the decision of the committee was an insult to the Conference 
 that had appointed it ! Whence this change '? Did he feel the gTound gliding from under his 
 feet ? What is singular, in the course of the sittings of Conference, when Mr. Fowler called the 
 attention of the house to the London Committees acting upon laws of their own enacting before 
 they received the sanction of the Conference, Doctor Bunting instantly arose, and told them 
 that the recommendation of such committees, in which there were so many respectable laymen, 
 should not be slightly passed over or rejected; obser%iug, — " You are the Conference, but not the 
 Connexion: and you must not ride rough-shod over it." Here the lay-lords, who had bought 
 
31 
 
 the way of all, and thus managed to pull the strings of each to his heart's 
 
 content Mr. Wesley says, ' Count Z. loved to keep all things 
 
 closely. I love to do all things openly.' Methodism is altered for the 
 worse in this respect But, apart from the Doctor, one of the ten- 
 dencies of the Centralization system is, to tempt the brethren in London 
 to assume an air of superiority over their brethren in the country ; a 
 superiority to which they are on no account entitled — whether on the 
 ground of talent, service, or ministerial character ; and which they can- 
 not be allowed to exercise, but at the risk of the liberties, the purity, 
 and peace of the Connexion. 
 
 2. Pride For parade, look at the Centenary Hall, with its 
 
 livery servants, ushering gentlemen into the august presence of the 
 sovereign, or telling them to M-ait till royalty is disposed to give an 
 audience. Look at the Wesleyan Soirees^ the cab and carriage driving 
 in the metropolis, the head inns and first-class carriages in the country : 
 look at the platforms and their furniture — animate and inanimate. (And 
 surely the Fly Sheet writers might have added, look at the pompous, 
 self-important airs assumed by the Liliputs who stand high because they 
 are supported on the shoulder of one higher than they.) 
 
 3. Partiality. Wei here include personal gratification in its various 
 forms. Having all power in their own hand, it leads to this. In the 
 case of Salaries. Here we refer again to our table of costs for the sums 
 which the self-denying Secretaries have appropriated to themselves, 
 while teaching the Missionaries and others economy.* The Secretaries 
 do not cost the Fund less than £500. per annum, each ; while Mr. 
 Jackson from Manchester has ,£250. per annum. (Contrast, him with 
 nine children, and Doctor Alder with none, and then say whether the 
 Fly Sheet writers are too severe when they add) — We lie pretty soft 
 when we have it in our power to feather our own nests. //* tlie selection 
 of men ; as, 
 
 (1.) For London. Even the meek Joseph Entwistle could say, — 
 
 him at Birmingham with X2000., were himg as a rod, in terrorem, over the Head of Conference. 
 
 We are not yet done with tlie Birmingham boon: it will be felt in succeeding years 
 
 How admirably he can blow hot and cold ! — cold on committees, of wliich he is not the liead ; 
 
 and hot on those of which himself and liis lay-patrons and benefactors are the principals 
 
 The brethren will bear in mind, this new definition of a 'connexion.' The rich men in com- 
 mittee were the persons referred to ; and they, of com-se, are the connexion ! What would 
 
 John Wesley think of this? The connexion is governed by London ; London," by Doctor 
 
 Bunting; and Doctor Bunting by the lay-lords ! "—Fly Sheets, No. 3, p.p. 12, 13. 
 
 * Sec (Table) Appendix. 
 
32 
 
 ' Oh, we must not have Doctor Beaumont in London ; he won't do for 
 us.' The question was not whether he would do for the people, the 
 circuit, the work of God ; but for us — the located, centralized clique ! 
 Most of the stations are at the beck and disposal of the party. The ears 
 of the stewards are open to their whispers. They are in the quarterly 
 meetings, in the Stationing Committees, in the Conference ; — steady to 
 their purpose — with their eyes fixed upon their chosen and marked men. 
 
 When Mr. Fowler was stationed in London he remained only three 
 
 years : there was not another circuit found for him : he did not suit the 
 brethren who say, ' He won't do for us.' 
 
 (2.) For Committees. The Minutes of Conference establish the 
 fact, that Doctor Bunting's clique are in the habit of not only helping 
 each other from one London circuit to another, and to the best Q) cir- 
 cuits in the Connexion, but from one committee to another. Besides 
 chairmancy, representativeship, superintendency, deputation work, and a 
 number of minor honours and committees, we find certain men, denomi- 
 nated Bunting's clique, generally holding the highest official stations in 
 the Connexion, and placed on the more important and influential com- 
 mittees ; while men of standing, eminence, piety, usefulness, and intel- 
 lect are excluded : and for no other reason, than that of not being of 
 Doctor Bunting's party. Take an example for the years 1839 and 1840, 
 which is preserved in countenance by other periods." 
 
 ("An extract only from the tabular view in the Fly Sheets is here 
 given.) 
 
 Names of the Men. 
 
 Of the Clique. 
 
 UocTOR Bunting, 
 
 J. Scott, 
 
 E. (jRINDROD, 
 
 T. Jackson, 
 
 J. Hannah, 
 
 J. Keeling, 
 
 K. Aldee, 
 
 J. Beecham, 
 
 Non-elect, or not of the Clique. 
 
 J. Stanley, Seur., 
 
 J. HiL , 
 
 Doctor Beaumont, 
 
 J. Fowler, 
 
 T. Galland, 
 
 S. Dunn, 
 
 Connexioual 
 Committees 
 each is on. 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 11 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 Years in 
 
 London. 
 
 18 
 7 
 6 
 
 19 
 6 
 2 
 
 Yefti's 
 each had 
 
 Travelled. 
 
 41 
 
 29 
 34 
 36 
 20 
 37 
 24 
 25 
 
 43 
 35 
 
 27 
 29 
 24 
 21 
 
33 
 
 " On this Table it may be remarked 2. That Messrs. Stanley and 
 
 Galland could not, with any shew of decency, be omitted in reference to 
 the Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove School Committees, in conse- 
 quence of the one being stationed in Bristol and the other in Leeds. 
 3. That there is not a man in these packed connexi'onal committees 
 equal to Mr. Stanley for wisdom and experience, or to Doctor Beau- 
 mont for splendour and power ; and yet, Mr. Stanley, senior to them 
 all, is placed only on one Committee, from which he could not, for the 
 
 sake of common decency, be excluded ; and Doctor Beaumont has 
 
 not a single election. If there is not in this hypocrisy, there is certainly 
 partiality, — the latter of which has as little to do with the ' wisdom from 
 above ' as the former. But the general feeling of the brethren has been 
 manifested in reference to Mr. Stanley ;..... .and Doctor Beaumont's 
 
 day will also dawn, powerful as has been the hand, and base the means, 
 to crush and keep him back. 
 
 As to the lay portion of the connexional committees, we wish to know 
 what claims Mr. T. P. Bunting has to be pushed forward in the way he 
 has been ? He is Doctor Bunting's son, and that is a sufficient passport 
 to the highest honours ! . 
 
 (3.) For Governors. We have often felt indignant at the argu- 
 ments resorted to, to accomplish certain objects ; particularly in the case 
 of the Theological Institutions. To secure the election of Mr. En- 
 twistle, the argument of age, experience, and standing in the Connexion 
 was employed After this, being anxious to introduce a pet, the pro- 
 priety of selecting a man full of health, vigour, and action was urged. 
 Subsequently to this, another friend was to be served ; but what was to 
 be done ? The old argument would not answer in this case, as a person 
 shaken with paralysis was to be served. Never heed ; the Doctor stands 
 too high for a little inconsistency to shake his credit The first argu- 
 ment involved in it the dotage of declining years ; the second included 
 the strength of a stone-mason ; and the third required a crutch to sup- 
 port it. At the Conference of 1846, on the election of Mr. Stamp, he 
 gravely observed, that ' he respected age ; but that it did not follow, 
 because a man was a senior, he was to be put in this office, as it would 
 not follow, that the oldest officer in the army, or the oldest surgeon in an 
 hospital, should fill an important vacant post.' At the same time he 
 opposed the election of Mr. Fish to the office, because he was not equal 
 to all the duties of a circuit! He had forgotten Mr. Bowers, poor 
 man ! 
 
84 
 
 (4.) For editors, paid agents, and different posts of honour." (Here 
 the Fly Sheets name several offices, particularize the individuals filling 
 them, and state various circumstances connected with their appointment ; 
 which, if true, certainly disqualify some of them for office ; and, in other 
 cases, throw much doubt on the need of having some of the offices at 
 all. Several of the alleged cases deserve, for its own honour, the inves- 
 tigation of Conference. They will ooze out. Indeed, some of them 
 have got into the ears of the laity, and will probably lead to enquiries 
 which will only confirm the views of the Fly Sheets, as to the baneful 
 influence which Centralization has exerted upon the body.) 
 
 "4. Centralization leads to a misapplication of the Public Funds :* 
 Four Missionanj Secretaries costing in thirteen years Twenty Six 
 
 * "The Missionaiy Secretaries who had felt the force of our remarks, in No. 1, were not pre- 
 pared to meet them in the usual way of a formal defence. Dr. Bunting now felt the need of the 
 lay-aristocracy, which he had long laboured to establish, and into whose hands the connexion is 
 in danger of falling. Mr. Heakl started up in the ' special Committee of Review,' and pro- 
 posed a resolution, which, in substance, declared the satisfaction of the meeting, with the pro- 
 ceedings of the Committee ; thus white-washing both the men and the cellars beneath the 
 Mission premises. Any allusion to the Fly Sheets would have been Uke a tly in the pot of oint- 
 ment. Hush ! it was hoped that all was over. This was fittingly preceded by Mr. Beecham and 
 Dr. Alder, (the latter of whom is an admirable example of economy and self-denial,) ' who read 
 the Minutes of the General Committee, manifesting, as usual, the utmost attention to every par- 
 ticular which could increase the income, or diminish the expenditure of the Society.' Watchman, 
 July 29, 184G. A triumphant answer to all the charges!. . . .We should be glad to learn when 
 this ' diminished expenditure ' took place. By tm-ning to the Minutes of 1844, p. 127, we iind 
 £12. 12s. placed to the account of Mr. W. Bunting, for a jaunt to Scotland to present a copy of 
 Mr, Wesley's Works to the General Assembly of the Free Clmrch of Scotland. Why not present 
 them by the superintendent preacher on the spot? Or, if it were absolutely necessaiy to pay 
 for far carried respect, why not send age and experience doA\Ti to the north?. .. .We find a 
 second £12. 12s. for a jaunt of another with the President; and notwithstanding the £50. 
 quietly pocketed by Dr. Bunting, on the motion of Mr. Scott, the sum of £80. additional is 
 placed to his account as President, which alone is sufficient to cover the expenses of other 
 Presidents. With regard to Dr. Alder, it is off'ered as an apology for his extravagance, that he 
 is called upon, in his official capacity, to mix with the aristocracy, and that therefore it is proper 
 
 to maintain a position of dignity in his movements in society WTiat says the venerable 
 
 Wesley ? ' Hold not the faith of our common Lord, the Lord of glory — of which gloiy all who 
 believe in him partake — with respect to persons. That is, honour none for merely being rich ; 
 despise none for merely being poor.' And if none are to be honoured merely for being rich, 
 would the same devout expositor think that any are to be flattered and imitated, merely because 
 they are prodigal and e.xpensive ? How admirably Dr. A. understands and adheres to his oom- 
 mentator in his missionaiy excursions, — travelling in first class caiTiages, and tanking at the 
 first hotels and inns, and living at first-rate charges, because he is the Missionary Secretarj' who 
 mingles Avith the aristocracy of Methodism ! At the next meeting of the Committee of Eeview, 
 a vote of thanks should be tendered to the Dr"s. friends who have assigned this most appropriate 
 and potent argument in justification of the expensive course he has long been pm'suing. Should 
 it in future be found necessary to address any of our missionary functionaries on the necessity 
 of curtailing their extravagant expenditui'e, the Eev. Dr. A. should be specially requested to draw 
 
35 
 
 Thousand Pounds ! ! Enormous prices for literary productions, if a 
 
 man is a favourite if not, he is sent empty away. On Mr. Watson's 
 
 death, £2000., were given for the copy-right of his works, the first edition 
 of which was published several years ago, and is either yet unsohl, or 
 the demand has been of such a character as to prevent the publication of 
 
 a second. The Book- Steward — a fine literary character informed 
 
 Doctor Clarke that <£400. or £500. was the utmost to which he could 
 go for the copy-right of his Commentary ; a work for which Tegg is 
 stated to have given £2000. after the market had been supplied with the 
 first edition, and by which, it is stated on good authority, he realized 
 £30,000. Either there was a want of judgment, or there was gross 
 partiality. Needless Paraded £40,000 were extracted from the Cen- 
 
 up such an address, as it will come from him with uncommon force, as to use the language o f 
 Dr. Bunting in reference to Mr. Scott, he knows all the 'ins (inns) and outs ' of the subject. 
 
 A circular, signed by the four Missionaiy Secretaries, is fonvarded to the preacher.s on the 
 several circuits which the lay-agent is appointed to visit. In this document the following para- 
 graph is found : — ' We are persuaded that you and your colleagues will do what you can to make 
 his visit as efficient as possible ; and that if there be any friends who can entertain him during 
 his stay, without cost to the Funds of the Society, they will gladly receive him into tlieir hortses, 
 and bid him, ' God speed.' — Signed, — Kobert Alder, &c. 
 
 We have italiced the words to which we especially invite the attention of Dr. Alder, who pre- 
 fers the INN to the house of a friend — costly to cheap travelling — and who saddles the 
 
 FUNDS rather than the friends of the society with his expenses We wish to know, 1st, 
 
 Whether Dr. Alder has the sanction of the body, and especially the poor, to spend their money 
 in tliis way ? 2. Whether any honour is reflected either on the sincerity or simplicity of Method- 
 ism, in taking up an assumed character — in thus passing otl" for what he is not — a gentleman, at 
 the expense of others ? 
 
 Great courage (was shewn) in the Conference to have read, not from the Fly Sheets, where 
 substantially, it had long been, but from the letter of ' an old Weslcyan,' some good advice, viz., 
 that ' stifiF preachers be thrown overboard;' ihat ' good preachers be sent to poor circuits with 
 a view to raise them ;' that ' younger men, if suitable, be made superintendents, and the older 
 men not to be jealous;' that preachers ' should cost as little as possible in going to Missionary 
 meetings, and should never go to inns when private friends will be glad to see tliem.' " — Fly 
 Sheets, No. 3, p.p. 13—15 ; No. 4, p. 21. 
 
 • The system which has called the Fly Sheets into existence furnishes various incidental 
 instances of love of parade and shew engendered thereby. " At the last Manchester Confer- 
 ence, after Doctor Alder had received his title, he was anxious to appear in full costume before 
 the public, and hand doAvn Ids doctorate to posterity. Ho urged the committee to allow his 
 portrait to be taken and to appear a second time in the Wesleyan ^Magazine ; stating, that he 
 thought it ought to appeal- on pubhc grounds— because of the services he had rendered the 
 connexion, especially in Canada! A sarcastic wag, Mr. Athcrton, refen-iug to the difference in 
 his appearance, being slender when first taken, said, ' I for one have no objection to a second 
 appearance, provided all the additional matter is published with it.' This gentleman, it would 
 appear is unusually fond of his face. He was not at the Centenary Meeting in Iklanchcster, 
 and yet he is in front of the Centenarj' picture? Having heard of this forthcoming exhibition, 
 and aniious to appear in it, he hastened to tlie publisher, and requested to be introduced : there 
 
36 
 
 tenary Fund for a couple of spirit cellars, a large room, and two rooms 
 for each of the Secretaries! No less a sum than £2,406. 135. 7d. was 
 taken from the contributions of the people to support The Watchman ! 
 Would the whigs of the Wesleyan body, if they had known it, and been 
 allowed a voice on the occasion, have given their vote to support a tory 
 paper ; — a paper raised to support the interests of a Church and State 
 
 was naturally some demur : but secretaries have good salaries ; down went the sovereigns into 
 the teens ; and the publisher instantly saw an open door for his admission, and thus smuggled 
 him in, with a few other contraband articles, that were not at the meeting."— F. S., No. 1. p. 7. 
 
 " When the ' John Wesley,' respecting whose launch, fitting out, and sailing, we had such 
 flaming accounts in The Watchman, was at Southampton, the Missionary Secretaries went down 
 at the expense of the committee, to add dignity to the occasion, and to give an air of rehgious 
 
 solemnity, by their christian presence, to the whole affair The good people expected that a 
 
 sermon would be preached, or some rehgious service held for the benefit of the society. 
 NoUiing of the kind ! The worthy secretaries enjoyed two or three delightful holidays at one 
 of the principal inns, instead of mingling with the society and holding religious services. Wliy 
 
 did The Watchman keep this back ? Would the man whose name the vessel bore have acted 
 
 thus? One gentleman was so disgusted with the whole, that he withheld J£100., his wife 
 
 another, and Ms daughter £50., which was puii^osed to be given, in consequence." — Fly Sheets, 
 No. 4, p. 14. 
 
 The vain and childish love for titles, without even the semblance of scholarship to entitle 
 men to them, is another instance of the parade and love of shew which have been, if not 
 engendered, stimulated by the system of " Location, Centralization, and Secularization." For, 
 would Alder and Beecham, — names never heard of by a scholar, names unattached to any work 
 of Uterary pretensions, names unsuspected of the most ordmaiy amount of scholastic lore, — 
 would these men ever have thought of a Doctorate had they not first been injm-ed by place and 
 power ? " We would, if we could, call this gentleman Doctor. But, really, it is such a farce, we 
 cannot. We bm-st out into a loud exclamation at our desk at the very thought .of Beecham — a 
 Doctor! We will not — though under strong temptation — add more of our own, but will sub- 
 join a tit-bit from the " Fly Sheet Test Act Tested :" 
 
 " 'It has been quaintly hinted, that as tests are to be the order of the day, and are supported 
 by some of the titled brethren, it would be well, for the credit of learning, and to prevent the 
 body from becoming a laughing-stock to others, to establish a committee for the purpose of 
 testing the (jenuineness and real value of the title — its sources — the means by which it has been 
 obtained— its adaptation to the wearer — and the superior claims of the individual on whom it is 
 confeiTcd.' And we add, to imblish and present a copy to each University in Europe — it is 
 needless for America — that the heads of houses may know how to confer, — with honour to them- 
 selves, credit to the receivers, and the applause of the sensible and well-wishing, — scholastic titles 
 
 on men destitute of even the elements of scholastic lore. It is perfectly contemptible! What 
 
 would John Wesley say to it? Would he ever, save in derision, say Doctor ? It is said 
 
 in derision by most who use it. The following impromptu was written as soon as tliis doctorate 
 was announced by — oh, how fitting! — another Yankee Doctor — the celebrated Eobort Newton: 
 
 ' Thou of the silver trump — immortal Fame, 
 
 Now blow thy sweetest, loudest, loftiest blast ! 
 Blow, as at a Wellington's or Nelson's name, 
 
 Blow with an energy, as 'twere thy last ; 
 Till — all around — 
 'Beecham's a Doctor!' earth and heaven resound! 
 
87 
 
 party ? We know most of the shareholders ; among whom are Messrs. 
 J. Wood, T. Bm-ton, P. Rothwell, Sands, Crook, Farmer, Elhot* 
 Kaye, &c.* What ! are the centralizers in London to have the privilege 
 of dipping their hands into the pockets of the subscribers, many of whom 
 
 Trio of learned Doctors, now they stand, 
 With all their blushing honours fresh about them, 
 
 The gloiy and the wonder of our laud : 
 I wonder how the land could do without them ! 
 
 Most leai'ned three! 
 
 Profoundly do I reverence yoiu: D. D. 
 
 But ! ' illustrious Hoole ! ' on whom conferred 
 
 The honour- is not yet — I grieve to think 
 How, of the bitter streams of hope deferred, 
 
 Thou art, and hast been long, compelled to drink. 
 Upon my word — 
 Thou standest now much like a speckled bird ! 
 
 But pluck thy courage up, man ; soon no more 
 
 Shall thy conspicuous fitness smothei'ed be : 
 I'll match thy Latin, Greek, and Hebrew lore 
 
 Against the total of the other three. 
 Be sad no more ! 
 We have three learned Doctors, why not four} ' 
 
 I have thought of.putting in my claim to D.D., that is Double Dunce, upon good grounds. 
 One is, tliat, like one of the D. D.'s in the Mission House, I have been emi^loyed for -^ — yeai3 
 about £. s. d. ; and have, therefore, an equal claim vsith him to tlie title. Indeed, I am some- 
 times half tempted to assume it, since no one will give it me, and I have not money enough to 
 purchase it. — A preacher who is not a D. D. in either sense."— No. 4, p.p. 17. 18. 
 
 The possibility of a scholastic title being appended to a name whose owner has little preten- 
 sion to scholastic lore, is well illustrated by the author of a work whose title-page announces him 
 in full as, " Fellow of the Eoyal Society,' Ilonoraiy Member of the Royal Irish Academy, Corres- 
 ponding Member of the Eoyal Society of Northern Antiquaries, of the Society of Antiquaries of 
 Scotland, of the Archteological Society of Stockholm, and the Eeale Accademia di Firenzi, 
 'n Honorai7 Member of the Eoyal Society- of Literature, of the Newcastle Autiquai-iim Society, 
 of the Eoyal Cambrian Institution, of the Ashmoleau Society at Oxford, and of the Society for 
 the study of Gothic Architecture, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Corresponding Member 
 of the Comite des Arts et Monuments, &c., &c.! And this s^ame person, thus loaded with liter- 
 ai7 honom-s, in editing a work for the Percy Society, has illustrated it with notes as profoundly 
 erudite as the follo'-vlng instance : — 
 
 " Wiich was the cause of bis sepulture— Tinnai. From tlie Latin ! ! " 
 
 * It should not be forgotten, that the most active originator of The Watchman was the re- 
 nowned T. P. Bunting ; who is said to have been the largest holder of the .2100. shares, and who 
 prevailed upon his tory friends to subscribe the necessaiy capital, in order that his honoured 
 father might have an organ to defend and uphold his character and policy. But, alas, the poor 
 shareholders have never received a single shilling in the shape of profit; -nor do the " Keporta," 
 of any of the Connexional Funds, acknowledge any supplies from that quarter! 
 
38 
 
 could ill afford to contribute, to save the pockets of these squires, in an 
 unfortunate speculation on toryism ? Some of whom might have paid the 
 whole out of their own pockets, without injury to themselves ! Such mis- 
 application of public money would have been unknown but for the system 
 we here expose — that of Location and Centralization. The Centenary 
 
 Hall, and the Richmond Institution trick out Methodism as a thing 
 
 to be admired by the world. But, as if this piece of pomp were to be 
 tarnished, a permissive providence allows the serpent to enter both, in 
 order to open the eyes that have been dazzled into blindness ; — a gin shop 
 
 appears within the walls of one Puseyites, Socinians, Infidels, spring 
 
 up in the other ! 
 
 5. Insincerity. A system of tricking is practised to keep certain 
 men in office, and others out ; and this again supplants the spirit of 
 brotherly love, frankness, and confidence, ...the services are less effectively 
 performed than they might be. ..and tacitly reflects on all the brethren in 
 the connexion, except those in the London District, as unfit to take any 
 responsible part in the management of our connexional affairs. 
 
 6. It saps the foundation of the pastoral and apostolic office. 
 There is no escape from the fact, that it draws so much on the time of 
 the brethren in London, — time which ought to be employed in pastoral 
 visitations and ministerial studies... When is it heard, that metropolitan 
 officials ever visit the sick, or even give tickets ? 
 
 From what has been stated, the propriety, nay — the necessity of chang- 
 ing the preachers in London must be apparent to all ; — changing them as 
 often as the other preachers in the body The subject must be con- 
 sidered connexionally. The men have the sweep of the whole body. 
 
 The spirit of Methodism, which is locomotive, is opposed to it to 
 
 every thing like ease, aggrandizement, selfishness and oppression." — Fly 
 Sheets, No. 1, p.p. 19—30 No. 4, p. 43. 
 
 Such are the views of the Fly Sheet writers. Have they not made out 
 at least a ^nma /acie case ? Would a grand jury throw out the bill? 
 Is there no cause of alarm to the Wesleyan body in this system of cen- 
 tralization ? Does it not demand investigation ? Should it not awaken, 
 on the part of the Wesleyans, a caution and vigilance not far remote 
 from suspicion and jealousy, lest a system, that throws a number of per- 
 sons together, giving them fiicilities for combination possessed by no 
 other men in the body, should result in the evils which, ci priori^ may be 
 shewn to be incident to religious centralization, whatever may be the 
 advantages of the system ? The Fly Sheets overlook not this latter point : 
 
39 
 
 " We have sense enough to know, that it is of importance to have 
 our forces concentrated, whether civil^ miUtary, or ecclesiastical, that we 
 may be able to bring them to act either in a combined or in a separate 
 form, either simultaneously or successively, as the case may require ; but 
 we object to their being drawn by aspiring men who are incessantly grasp- 
 ing at the management of all our connexional affairs, and who cannot 
 obtain their object so well, if at all, unless these things be placed in Lon- 
 don ; — men whose affection for, and interest in, the country parts of the 
 Connexion have been annihilated by their long residence in the metro- 
 polis. There it is that they find their connections, their friends, their 
 interests, and nearly all that is dear to them. On this account they can- 
 not leave London; and, hence, if they are to be leading men in, and 
 governors of, the body, the apparatus which they have to manage must 
 be there. Mr. Scarth, of Leeds, one of Doctor Bunting's friends, spoke 
 out on the centralization system, in one of the more recent Committees, 
 strongly and honestly : he could not see why the country should not 
 share in the power and privileges of the metropolis, being possessed of 
 equal sense, and more abundant in contributions. We say, why not 
 shift them with the Conference ? It does not suit the policy of the 
 sovereign." — Fly Sheets, No. 1, p. 19. 
 
 The question to be decided is not, — Are there no advantages in cen- 
 trahzation ? The Fly Sheets admit that there are. The question in 
 which the Wesleyan body is interested is, — Are the evils arising out of 
 our peculiar centralization more than counterbalanced by its benefits? 
 The Fly Sheets reply — distinctly, positively — No ! The Watchman 
 answers chivalrously — Yes ! He shall be heard in defence of central- 
 ization, as he speaks in his number for October 25, 1848. 
 
 (" The thing complained of as Centralization, is, as we understand it, 
 thit the principal Institutions of Methodism are placed in liondon ; and, 
 that, by this arrangement, the metropolis of the empire is made the great 
 centre of Methodistical operation : the point to which candid enquiry 
 should be primarily directed, as it further strikes us, is whether this 
 arrangement was obviously contriveH with a sinister design to subserve 
 the purposes of personal or party ambition, or whether is was not adopte»l 
 from prudential considerations, if not indeed called for by the necessity 
 of the case." 
 
 The Fly Sheets have enumerated eight, and might have enumerated 
 nine, cases of metropolitan centralization. Why were four omitted by 
 The Watchman ? Was it because the enumeration of so many, and 
 
40 
 
 some of them without the shadow of a reason drawn from " necessity," 
 all centralized in London, might have startled the suspicions and fears 
 even of Ids readers ? Again, Why did not The Watchman detail 
 the evils of centralization, as given in the Fly Sheets, and disprove them 
 altogether ; or shew that they were greatly exaggerated ; or compensated 
 by the greater good arising from centralization ? Though it is evident 
 he has seen the Fly Sheets, not one word has he uttered in reply to the 
 serious allegations extracted in the preceding pages from these obnoxious 
 pamphlets ! It is a queerish way of defending accused persons ! A man 
 hardly deserves to be bolstered up in his office, if he cannot serve his 
 clients more efficiently ! He gives the go-bye to almost the whole, and 
 dwells only upon the points where he and his opponents are not much at 
 issue ! He flies to the strongest parts of the fortification with all his 
 forces: the weak parts, which consist of more than a moiety, he leaves 
 to shift for themselves as they best can ! Wondrous policy ! Valorous 
 shrewdness ! He deserves an ovation, if not a triumph ! 
 
 '^ The Book-Room was placed in London by Mr. Wesley himself. 
 
 Would the objector to centralization have it removed ? and, if so, to what 
 other locality ?" There are obvious reasons why the Book-Room, which 
 is a trading concern, should remain in one locality : and, if in one, on 
 principles of business, there is none so fitting as London. 
 
 " The Mission- House is also situated in London, and the management 
 of the foreign missions of the Society is committed chiefly to a metropoli- 
 tan committee of ministers and laymen. But this is not peculiar to 
 Methodism. All similar institutions have their head quarters also in 
 London." Their Conduct is not a model for us : the Wesleyans are a 
 connexion, and our missionary arrangements are connexional. The 
 " similar institutions "-belong to independent bodies and churches which, 
 in their corporate or church character, cannot be affected by any central- 
 ization of their missionary institutions. The men who are at the head of 
 our mission institution in London, are at the head of all our institutions 
 in London. The comparison fails utterly. There can be no intrigue, 
 for instance, at the London Mission-House, the Church Mission-House, 
 or the Bible Society's House, at all analogous to what might occur at the 
 Wesleyan Mission-House ; the leading men of which might combine, and 
 effectually, with other connexional committees or authorities, to keep a 
 man out of London, or out of the committees, because " He w^on t do 
 for us." Neither of the " similar institutions," could connexionally com- 
 bine with other committees swayed by one common influence, to keep 
 
41 
 
 Mr. James of Birmingham, or E. Baines, Esq., of Leeds, out of Lon- 
 don. All their acts are limited : the acts of ours are connexional : in 
 touching one, you touch all. There is no parallel. 
 
 The Watchman proceeds : " In what provincial town would it be pos- 
 sible to conduct with eflBciency, the affairs of the great Missionary 
 Society?" He enumerates what these affairs are. "The directors of 
 every society have to maintain an extensive and multifarious correspon- 
 dence, " — which might be as efficiently done in any principal town in the 
 kingdom, as in London. " Missionaries are embarking for distant 
 stations ; others are returning from foreign service ;" in this respect, 
 London probably has decided advantages. " Frequent intercourse with 
 Government is indispensably necessary;" if so, it is not indispensably 
 necessary that the missionary officials should reside in London, as written 
 correspondence will, except in rare instances, answer every requisite end, 
 and not so much endanger our simplicity and spirituality, nor be so likely 
 to inflate little minds, as the habit of deputations, with announcements in 
 
 the Court Circular to the effect that " The Rev. Dr. had the 
 
 honour of an interview with ." But is ^'' frequent intercourse with 
 
 Government indispensably necessary " ? Is there not too much of it ? 
 Would not a residence of the official staff in some provincial town be a 
 blessing, by rendering such intercourse less frequent ? It might not then 
 be deemed necessary that either of the missionary secretaries should have 
 a table service at which, with much of the appearance of a table of fashion, 
 one of the aristocracy can sit down to dinner. But if any of the nobihty 
 should dine with a Missionary Secretary, he should sit down to the plain 
 table, plain furniture, and plain diet that becomes a Methodist preacher, 
 the son in the Gospel of him, all whose plate amounted to two silver 
 tea spoons. This intercourse with Government and nobility is very costly. 
 A nobleman, or the governor of a colony, cannot sit down at a plainly 
 furnished table. The wonder is, that the Fly Sheet writers have not 
 taken up this evil of Centralization. It is said, that one of the Mission- 
 ary Secretaries can have as fine a set out, for a fashionable dinner, as a 
 nobleman or one of the ancient gentry can desire, when, as is not rarely 
 the case, one of those classes does him the honour to dine with him and 
 drink wine, after the ladies have retired. This would not occur in 
 provincial towns. The provincials would not stand it. 
 
 " Necessity arises for frequent application to members of parliament, 
 or attendance on parliamentary committees," quoth The Watchman. 
 The necessity is not frequent ; and a journey to London by second class 
 
 D 
 
42 
 
 — though officials must now take first class carriages* — would not be very 
 expensive. The expense of attendance on parliamentary committees, the 
 parliament defrays ; and the tory bias that has been given ^ in general, by 
 our officials in their parliamentary evidence, makes the less of this danc- 
 ing attendance at St. Stephens that can be, the better. 
 
 " Every Society must have its anniversary meeting in London, to 
 maintain its proper place in the public mind." The British Association 
 for the advancement of science, to secure a greater hold on the public 
 mind, holds its annual meetings in various parts of the kingdom. If, 
 however, the anniversary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society must be 
 held in London, its business throughout the year might, for all that, be 
 transacted in a provincial town. We are free, however, to concede to 
 The Watchman, that one department could not be carried on so well, if 
 indeed at all, anywhere but in London : — namely, the annual Soiree at 
 the Mission-House,f at which only the elect are admitted, cards of invita- 
 tion being issued to the gentlemen and ladies who promenade at them. 
 
 " The directors of the several societies must have opportunities of in- 
 tercourse with each other." Granted ; but second class carriages would 
 allow this at but little expense comparatively, on the very few occasions 
 when a queen's head or two might not be sufficient to answer all the 
 necessities of the case. 
 
 This is all that The Watchman has advanced on behalf of Centraliza- 
 tion at the Mission-House • and if this be all that can be said for it, verily 
 it has hardly a leg to stand on ! And when these, for the most part, 
 flimsy arguments, are weighed against the evils of centralization, as point- 
 ed out in no less than five particulars in the Fly Sheets, the case may 
 
 * A Weslej'an Minister was revolving in his mind how he could, with his limited means, 
 double his subscription to the mission cause. As an expedient, he resolved to travel, when he 
 could, by third class, instead of the second, as he had been used to do. What was his surprize, 
 and what his mortilication, as he was hasting to the train, with third class ticket in hand, to see 
 a Kev. Secretary seated in a first class train ! This is one of the evils complained of in the 
 Fly Sheets. The centralized Locators cannot travel like the Methodist preachers! Oh, no! 
 this would be beneath their dignity ! They must travel like gentlemen ! But, who pays for it ? 
 Themselves '> Fu'st class carriages, and first class hotels, and first class dinners, and first class 
 wines, are costly to all who pay for tliem out of their own pockets ! 
 
 t Plainmembers of society will hardly understand this foreign and fashionable tenn. Once 
 a year the Missionaiy Secretaries issue cards of invitation to their favourites, who come with 
 Avlute kid gloves — think of A\'esleyan ministers shewing ofiiu white kid gloves! — and the gentle- 
 men and ladies, after walkhig about arm in ann through the suite of apartments, refreshing 
 themselves with vrme.s and other drinks, cakes, etc., and indulging for some hours in this fashion- 
 able lounging, retire, without singing, without prayer, without devotion of any kind! And theae 
 men are to be lauded to the skies! 
 
43 
 
 stand because of usage, but can never be defended on the ground of right. 
 Except in one particular, there is not one of the points mentioned by The 
 Watchman, but what might be efficiently done in several of our provin- 
 cial towns, and the body, at the same time be saved from the evils of 
 centralization. Of these evils The Watchman seems to make no account, 
 as he takes no note of them. But will the Wesleyan Public take no note 
 of them? Will the Wesleyan Public take no account of them ? Will 
 they not be placed as a heavy set off against the problematical necessity 
 or importance of having our missionary affairs centralized in London ? 
 A stronger case might be made out ; and even the Fly Sheet writers 
 themselves, who admit the advantages of centralization, would concede, 
 that with regular change both of secretaries and committees, it is desir- 
 able that the Mission-House as well as the Book-Room, should be located 
 in the metropolis. 
 
 The Watchman employs precisely the same argument to justify the 
 placing of the Educational Department of the Connexion^ and the Com- 
 mittee for guarding its privileges. It would be tedious to repeat the same 
 reply. Indeed, for both of these there exists not the shadow of necessity 
 that either should be located at all, still less located in London. The 
 more these committees, and all other connexional ones, can be distributed 
 and shifted, the greater amount of interest are they likely to create, and 
 the larger number of individuals will be interested in them. This central- 
 ization without necessity, is as bad in policy as it is bad in principle. 
 Acquaintance with the workings of Methodism is limited to a icw ; and 
 these few are the same individuals, from year to year. The mass of our 
 influential friends take no part whatever in our connexional operations. 
 The laymen of London and Manchester, with few exceptions, are the 
 only members of our societies who have anything to do with connexional 
 matters. Break up the combination system ; let one connexional com- 
 mittee meet in one neighbourhood, a second in another, and so on ; 
 change the locality for each committee, from time to time ; and though 
 there may be some inconveniences, the fatal evils of our centralization 
 will be escaped, and the interests of hundreds and thousands in maintain- 
 ing every department of our system be enlisted. And yet The Watch- 
 man, with nothing more than the above cobweb arguments, ventures to 
 say : — '' We give credit to the inteUigence and candour of our readers, 
 by presuming that they must at once perceive, and be prepared to admit, 
 that the Conference was influenced by the most weighty reasons for 
 placing and continuing those institutions where they are." 
 
44 
 
 " All the important institutions of Methodism are not placed in the 
 metropolis. Those which might be managed as well elsewhere, are all 
 situated in the provinces." The Watchman gives three instances. — 
 " Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove Schools :" — these must be fixtures : 
 so this is but little gain to his defence. '' The Chapel affairs .•" — which 
 are managed in Manchester, in the very centre of the wealthy lay sup- 
 porters of the great Locator and Centralizer. " The Theological Insti- 
 tution ;" — at least one branch of it, and that in the suburbs of Manchester 
 again. 
 
 And does The Watchman give us so little credit for intelligence, as to 
 suppose, that these three are a set off against the other nine ? That the 
 Wesleyan public will be satisfied that this arrangement is a safe one, 
 because out of twelve sources of influence three are deposited in the 
 provinces, and two of those three in Manchester, among the very men 
 who are on all the principal committees that hold their sittings in the 
 metropolis ? Does this location of three departments in the country, 
 while nine departments are drawn together in close contact in London, 
 shew that metropolitan centralization does not, as afiirmed in the Fly 
 Sheets, lead to '■'• Tyranny ;" to " Pride ;" to "• Partiality in the case of 
 salaries, and in the selection of men, for London, for committees, for 
 governors, for editors, paid agents, and different posts of honour ;" to 
 " Misapplication of the public funds, in extravagant salaries to missionary 
 secretaries ; enormous prices for literary property, if the man be a 
 favourite ; to needless parade at the Centenary Hall and Richmond In- 
 stitution ;" to " Insincerity;" and to the sapping of *' the pastoral and 
 apostolic office " ? Has The Watchman's empty rattle driven away these 
 mischiefs ? Does he suppose that the public has so little intelligence, that 
 when the advantages of Centralization are placed by him in bold relief, 
 the serious evils alleged to be its fruit, are so completely thrown into the 
 shade as to be altogether out of sight ? Of the three, one department, 
 the Schools, must be located, and located in the provinces. The other 
 two are j^laced where there is much sympathy with the men who figure in 
 the nine. To have had none in the provinces, would have been too glaring 
 as to the design and policy ; there are, however, as few as possible out of 
 London : and these few can scarcely be deemed a counterpoise to metro- 
 politan centralization. 
 
 III. — Secularization. The views expressed in the Fly Sheets on 
 this evil, may be gathered from the following extract. " This endangers 
 
45 
 
 not only the connexion, but the souls of the persons in question. Being 
 located, and constituting- a centre, towards which money is constantly 
 flowing, and where matters of finance constitute the grand staple of their 
 business and conversation, scarcely any thing, save that which is worldly, 
 is permitted to come over their spirits. In the early Minutes of Con- 
 ference, we have the following question and answer : — 
 
 ' We have this year spent about two days in temporal business: how 
 may we avoid this for the time to come ? 
 
 Let the clerks do as much of it as Ihey can by themselves, and it will 
 save us half the time.' 
 
 'Two days' were considered too much in consequence of the 
 
 baneful, secularizing influence it had upon the mind, and the time it took 
 away from higher and holier considerations — the spiritualities of the 
 church. If ' two days ' were distressing to the mind of John Wesley, 
 what would be his feehngs now, to find the Missionary Secretaries, 
 
 Book Steward, and others, steeped in secularities the year round, 
 
 and buried in them the half of a long, and, what should be, a ministerial 
 
 life Observe, we do not lose sight of the fact, that, in consequer>ce 
 
 of the largeness of the connexion, more time must necessarily be spent 
 upon merely financial matters, both by the Committees and the Confer- 
 ence. It is against the secularizing tendency of these things that we 
 
 direct our remarks The sense in which we employ the term ' secular,' 
 
 differs from this — (the Romish.) Our seculars have their ' religious 
 houses' in London, in the Book-Room, and Centenary Hall ; and they 
 have their own ' rules and regulations,' too ; but then, they have the 
 care of no ' parish,' or circuit : so that they enjoy their ' houses ' with 
 the bare semblance only of their priestly functions ; combining in the 
 two, just what preserves them ' well-favoured,' lofty, easy, and comfort- 
 able Whatever, therefore, renders the spirit of a man thus secular, 
 
 deprives him of the quahfication essential to a christian minister 
 
 These observations apply with peculiar force to Wesleyan Ministers. 
 Whatever tends to lower their concern for the souls of men, and for the 
 Saviour's glory — as less general intercourse with the people, less frequent 
 exercise of their talent among them, and less thought about them, will 
 indirectly do— will lead to secularity of spirit : and whatever requires 
 their time and talents to be employed about other things, which rather 
 rob them of, than add to, their incHnation to be found iu the studies and 
 exercises which are essential to the effective discharge of ministerial and 
 pastoral duties, directly secularizes their character They become 
 
46 
 
 isolated ; and their feelings, interests, and friendships, become limited 
 and localized : and so far as their minds and time are occupied with 
 things that rather quench than fan, the flaming love and zeal which are 
 the glory of the ministers of Christ, though connected with the cause of 
 God, and essential to it, so far they secularize the spirit, that God had 
 specially called to, and fitted for, the performance of a spiritual work. 
 
 What, then, must be the tendency of the offices of the Book-Steward, 
 Editors, and Missionary Secretaries, without change, and for a succession 
 
 of years? Can they, thus remaining localized and centralized, avoid 
 
 being secularized in their thoughts, affections, desires, purposes, and 
 habits? Otherwise than this, it is impossible to be, while hands and 
 heart are engaged from the beginning to the end of the week, month, 
 and year, in things less spiritual than those to which they profess to have 
 a special call. They are, in their spirit and habits, not only bringing the 
 world into the church, but withholding the genuine apostle of Christ 
 
 from the Christian pulpit! The Book-Stewards have all participated 
 
 as much in the spirit of the world, in buying and selling, and making the 
 best and hardest bargains for Methodism, as the private members of 
 society do, in driving the most advantageous trade for their respective 
 
 families, or the persons by whom they happen to be employed This 
 
 was especially felt by that excellent man, Mr. Robert Lomas ; and Ave 
 could mention another case, in which one of these men was so completely 
 imbued with the spirit of the world, that he availed himself of his situa- 
 tion of bartering, buying, selling, and doing business for himself. Let 
 the world once enter the soul, no matter how, whether through the 
 counting-house or the church doors, and a man will soon reason himself 
 into a variety of things, with which his more delicate sense of propriety 
 w^ould be shocked, if he possessed the genuine spirit of the ministerial 
 office. He will not hesitate to lay a handsome per centage on his travel- 
 ling expenses ; whereas, simple wear and tear might be the only things 
 that entered into his early considerations ; forgetting, as habits become 
 fixed, that regular board and quarterage are going on, besides the pay- 
 ment of others for doing the work at home, while himself is abroad 
 
 We ask, then, 
 
 1. Is it agreeable to the original design of Methodism, that the 
 preachers should either withdraw of their own account, or constitute 
 such a state of things as to throw temptations in the way of others to 
 withdraw them, from the all-important and regular work of the ministry, 
 to sit and serve at tables, in committees, the greater part of whose busi- 
 
47 
 
 ness is merely of a financial character, and to exchanije the ministerial 
 office for that of accountant — spirituals for temporals ! But, admittino- 
 the evil to be allowed by ' Methodism as it w,' — a term admirably 
 hitched in during the struggle of 1834, — we ask, 
 
 2. By what authority the Wesleyan Church requires any man so to 
 desecrate his talents, or to be fixed in offices, that, directly or indirectly, 
 war against his ministerial calling, and deprive him of the spirit given 
 him of God for the best performance of his highest and holiest work ? 
 
 3. How can any man, consistently with the fidelity he owes to God, 
 with the testimony of a good conscience, or with a hope of the final 
 approval of his Lord and Master, either station himself, or allow himself 
 to be stationed in such offices for six, twelve, twenty, or thirty vears 
 together ? and, at the close of a long period, maintain his hold of them 
 with the tenacity with which he clings to life ; or go out of them growl- 
 ing, as if he had received an injury, and as though he had not had his 
 over and above quantum of honour and ease ? 
 
 4. Why should such preachers in the connexion be located, and 
 laid aside from their pulpit labours, as Messrs. Bunting, Hannah, 
 Farrar, &c., — labours to which they consider themselves expressly and 
 
 exclusively called by God and the Church? It may be stated, 
 
 that the order of things has been changed in the body. TJm is the 
 core of the mischief. Why allow the change? — a change injurious to the 
 ministry among us ? That men ought to fill these offices is admitted : 
 but, 
 
 5. Why cannot laymen be found to attend to the more secularizing 
 part of the business, under the supervision of a committee ? Is there 
 any thing in these offices to which a good clever layman, versed in busi- 
 ness, cannot attend, and for which his commercial pursuits have not fitted 
 him ? Nay, why call in the aid of laymen at all, as clerks and com- 
 mittee men, if none but divines were equal to the work ? 
 
 6. If it is still insisted that none but preachers can fill these offices, 
 vehy not introduce less acceptable men, as to pulpit talent, but of equal, 
 if not superior business habits? If men are to be spoiled by sccularity, 
 let them, for the sake of the pulpit and the church, be taken, like some 
 of the Book- Stewards, from the less acceptable of the priesthood. 
 
 7. If the Saviour is to be robbed of his apostles, and their number 
 must be decreased by draughting them into the ranks of the scribes and 
 idlers, why keep them in office till ' twice dead, and plucked up by the 
 roots,' before they are removed ? Let them have a chance of recovering 
 
48 
 
 themselves, and of entering into their former spirit and usefuhiess, before 
 they are called upon to give an account of the apostleship, to which they 
 professed to be called, and in which they were to live and die. With the 
 exception of Messrs. T. Jackson and J. Farrar, — (and these, being 
 steeped in divinity through the week, are happily saved — at least, in part,) 
 — there is not a man among them, that has not been injured in his pri- 
 mitive character, as a preacher, by his office And these seculars, 
 
 forsooth, are the men generally employed in ordaining others, by the 
 imposition of hands, to the apostolic office, to go and preach when, and 
 wherever they can, till they fairly die in the harness, — urging them in 
 their addresses, to be diligent and faithful in the work of the ministry 
 and pastorate!! — offices which they themselves have left, and the spirit 
 of which they have lost ! They remind us of a set of fat, downy bishops ; 
 or, in the less complimentary language of Pope, ' oily men of God,' 
 appointing others to work which they themselves rarely touch ; — masters 
 sending their servants into the field — a field in which they themselves 
 ought to be found, agreeably to the mandate of their Lord — ' Go work 
 in my vineyard,' — but in which they are only found by proxy. Substitu- 
 tion is easy work : go on with it, and the work of God will soon be 
 destroyed. 
 
 In support of the non-usefulness of these seculars, and the sapless 
 character of their ministry, it may be remarked, that it was found in the 
 December quarter of 1845, that, in the eight London circuits, there was 
 a decrease of 380 members, and in only one circuit an increase of 10. 
 In these eight circuits, exclusive of the labours of the students in the 
 Richmond Institution, most of whom are employed every Sabbath, 
 together with the labours of returned misssionaries, and local preachers, 
 there are between fifty and sixty preachers, including a sprinkling of 
 supernumeraries, stationed by Conference. This, it may be stated, will 
 apply to the comparative non-usefulness of the itinerant as well as located : 
 but it does not follow that good time-pieces will always be exact in their 
 movements with a number of dead weights appended to them ; or that 
 carriages will roll on with celerity with drags attached to their wheels. 
 
 It is a fact, stated by one of the longest of the located, that the 
 
 London societies are mostly kept up by accessions from the country. 
 Even the missions appear to begin to feel the deadening influence of 
 these ecclesiastical worldlings : an increase of only between three and four 
 hundred in 1845 and 1846 for an expenditure of upwards of .£100,000 1 
 per annum. Nor does it comport with God's general dealings, that 
 
49 
 
 spiritual prosperity slioulrl follow, when guided solely by the hand of 
 secularity. Where is the prosperity of the English Church ? It is directed 
 by a set of temporals, falsely denominated spirituals. Well may the mission- 
 ary part of our church languish under the hands of the lords spiritual and 
 temporal in the Grand Centenary Hall. There is scarcely a returned 
 missionary with whom they have not had a squabble ; and several have 
 been compelled to go without a redress of gr-ievances, and the payment 
 of their just demands. We can name the men." — Fly Sheets, No. 1, 
 p.p. 30—35. 
 
 Such is the tendency, according to the Fly Sheets, of the system 
 against which they have directed their missiles. It is difficult to conceive 
 how men " steeped in secularities ail the year round," and this for an un- 
 interrupted period of a quarter of a century^ can retain the views, the 
 feelings, — habits are out of the question — of christian ministers. To call 
 them christian ministers is a misnomer. They are not so much christian 
 ministers as the majority of local preachers who are not more " steeped 
 in secularities " than they ; and who are not so likely to be secularized 
 by their daily occupations, as these located officials, because the local 
 preachers, in addition to quite as much preaching at least, are often en- 
 gaged in visiting the siclv, and in attending prayer-meetings — spiritualiz- 
 ing means these in which it is rare to see a centralized locator engaged. 
 At any rate, he' must have an extraordinary stock of grace, and must be 
 a very Fletcher, Bramwell, Benson, or John Smith in spirit, if, despite 
 of this close attendance in serving tables, he can keep up the fine sensi- 
 bility, the ardent compassion for souls, the enthusiasm for preaching, the 
 passion for sinners' conversion, that are indispensable elements of an 
 apostolic minister. Certainly there is not a general impression that the 
 centralized located are as elevated above their brethren in spirituality, in 
 impassioned earnestness for souls, in habitual self-denial and mortification 
 of the body, as they are distinguished from their brethren by the long 
 retention of seats of ease and of power. It is easy to give credit to a 
 fact " stated by one of the most intelligent, useful, and devout officers 
 in the metropolis, and reiterated by the private members, that there are 
 not more than two of the preachers who have retained their unction, and 
 only one his popularity, on the event of location." — F. S., No. 1, p. 33. 
 
 This may be very unpalatable to the located ; their flatterers may per- 
 suade them that this is a false statement ; that their popularity and the 
 unction of their occasional ministrations have suffered no dimmution. 
 It is their misfortune, as it is the misfortune of kings, seldom to hear the 
 
50 
 
 truth. This is the truth. Would that they would heed it ! They are 
 not regarded, in general, as " examples to the church of God," or as 
 towering high above their brethren in '' spiritual gifts." Their willing- 
 ness to continue so long in offices, — which, by their own shewing, curtail 
 largely their opportunities of preaching the gospel — that blessed work, 
 compared with which all other is dung and dross, — awakens, and can any 
 wonder at it ? — the suspicions that the love of office has sadly neutralized 
 the love of souls : that the ease and comforts of location have produced 
 an apprehension of, and a dislike for, the inconveniences of itinerancy ; 
 and that a clerkship has the preference of the heart to the pastorate ! 
 This suspicion has been awakened. It is a pity that it has been awaken- 
 ed : it is a greater pity that there should have been occasion given to 
 arouse this suspicion ! 
 
 But both the fact, and the tendency are denied. The Watchman 
 treats the arguments as lying slander. Let him be heard. He shall 
 speak freely and fully in these pages. 
 
 The Watchman, Nov. 8, 1848, commences his argument by taking 
 exception to the sense in which the Fly Sheets use the term *' Seculariza- 
 tion." " Our first business is to record our protest against a style of 
 writing and speaking only calculated to mislead. The management of 
 church affairs is not ' Secularization,' if words are allowed to retain their 
 definite and appropriate meaning. According to the ordinary and 
 established forms of speech, when an individual is described as being 
 employed in secular pursuits, the meaning conveyed is, that he is not 
 devoted to the work of the christian ministry, but is engaged in some 
 worldly profession, or line of business, with the view of obtaining a Hveli- 
 hood for himself and his family. But a minister of the gospel, while 
 engaged in the management of those temporal matters on which the 
 great Head of the Church has made the maintenance and extension of 
 His own cause so considerably to depend, is not to be represented as 
 engaged in secular affairs, as employing his time and energies in secular 
 undertakings. When persons write and speak of this as ' Secularization,' 
 they awaken the supicion, that they are not anxious to avoid the use of 
 language which can only serve to injure the cause of truth and righte- 
 ousness." 
 
 The writers of the Fly Sheets seem to know full as well as The 
 Watchman, the meaning of the term " Secularization," and to have a 
 more legitimate dread of its effects than he. While The Watchman 
 gives one sense of the term, he appears to forget, that it has other senses, 
 
51 
 
 one of which, on the authority of that prince of lexicographers, Doctor 
 Johnson, is " to make worldly ;" and that it is in this "ordinary and 
 established form of speech," and with this " definite and appropriate 
 meaning," that the tendency of the system is said in the Fly Sheets to 
 " secularize " the centralized located. " When persons write and speak" 
 of a term used in controversy, as if it had but one fixed sense, whereas 
 it happens to have another " established meaning," and moreover, it is 
 in this latter sense that their opponents use it, " they awaken suspicion " 
 too, even if they write as The Watchman does ; — a suspicion that they 
 wish to blind their readers to the merits of the case, and to misrepresent 
 the arguments which they are opposing. The Watchman, at the onset, 
 must be regarded as fighting with a shadow. It is the worldly tenden- 
 cies of this system which the Fly Sheets affirm. But take him on his own 
 definition, and it will be found that the " legs of the lame are not equal," 
 and that his is a limping argument at best : " He that is not devoted to 
 the work of the christian ministry, but is engaged in some worldly pro- 
 fession, or line of business, is described as employed in secular pursuits." 
 And is the daily business of the Book-Steward the work of the christian 
 ministry? How so? any more than in the case of other great publish- 
 ers, Longman and Co.,' Murray, &c. Is the occupation of the chairman 
 of the Education Committee all the week long throughout the year in 
 collecting statistics, watching parliamentary movements, corresponding 
 with all kinds of people, on all kinds of questions which the Education 
 scheme opens, a part of the work of the christian ministry, any more 
 than the active life of a political economist, or of a parliamentary agent ? 
 Or the entire occupation of the time and labour of a Missionary Secre- 
 tary, in managing the financial affairs of the Society, and in fitting out 
 and making all necessary purchases for the fitting out of missionaries ; — 
 whether from a stock-in-trade kept in his own house, under the care 
 of his wife, or taken direct from the warehouses of others ;— is this, 
 so different from what is " secular," that a man by his vows, by his 
 divine call to preach, by his ordination called to the pastorate, is prov- 
 ing himself thereby a whit more '' devoted to the work of the christian 
 ministry " than a public accountant ; or, what is technically called, '' a 
 ship's husband ? " '' A minister of the gospel engaged in the manage- 
 ment of those temporal matters on which the great Head of the Church 
 has made the maintenance and extension of his cause to depend, is not to 
 be represented as employing his time and energies in secular undertak- 
 ings." Agreed. There will be no diversity of judgment on this pro- 
 
52 
 
 position. But the question suggests itself: May not gospel ministers 
 take the management of temporal matters which the Head of the Church 
 never intended should be in their hands ; or, of which, at the most, they 
 were to take but a most general supervision — such supervision as would 
 not prevent their devotedness " to the work of the christian ministry ? " 
 Otherwise, if a church only authorize it, its ministers may engage in any 
 temporal matters without being secular! And the English Bishops in 
 the house of lords are not secular ! And clerical functionaries in eccle- 
 siastical courts and Doctor's Commons, and on the magisterial bench, are 
 not secular! And Roman priests, under the guise of Jesuits, and prac- 
 tising as merchants, schoolmasters, lawyers, physicians, prime ministers, 
 and pedlars, are not secular ! for they are managing the temporal affairs 
 of their church. And men, holding their fellow-men in bondage, and 
 making merchandise of them, or working them like brute beasts, are not 
 secular! because they are " employing their time and energies" in the 
 temporal affairs of a church, a part of whose property consists in human 
 chatties! ''The law and the testimony" must be appealed to, before 
 The Watchman can be allowed to throw his lexicographical shield before 
 " The Location, the Centralization, and the Secularization," assailed in 
 the Fly Sheets. 
 
 After this vague and useless flourish of trumpets, The Watchman 
 proceeds. His argument shall again be given infidl^ though it trespasses 
 on the space within which it is intended to confine this enquiry. ''Reject- 
 ing then the term ' Secularization,' we may inquire, if the occupancy of 
 time and attention on the part of the ministers of the gospel, in the manage- 
 ment of such church affairs as are committed, by the Wesleyan Confer- 
 ence, to its various officers, is in itself an evil, which must necessarily 
 prove injurious to the spiritual interests of the connexion ? Were it the 
 inevitable consequence, that any other employment than pulpit labour 
 and pastoral visitation, injured the spirituality of a minister, and seriously 
 unfitted him for higher functions, the cause of religion itself icould cer- 
 tainly suffer. But where is the evidence to be found, that this must 
 necessarily be the result?" Have the Fly Sheet writers, in one single 
 sentiment, or in one single expression, affirmed, or insinuated, that "«wy 
 other employment than pulpit labour and pastoral visitation" is injurious 
 " to the spirituality of a minister?" They do not appear to be such 
 children in understanding — to have so limited a view of things — or to be 
 so little read in scripture or in history, as this supposes. What they 
 affirm, and what they prove is, that the system of " Location, Central- 
 
63 
 
 ization, and Secularization," so entirely precludes the possibility of pas- 
 toral visitation, and so fearfully trenches upon the regularity and fulness 
 of pulpit labour, that the gospel minister is sunk in the financier, and the 
 pastor is lost in the committee-man ! And this is the bull which The 
 Watchman should have taken by the horns, if he designed to help his 
 friends. Instead of this, he has set up a shadow, and fights with that, 
 as though it were the creature of the Fly Sheets. 
 
 The Watchman advances in the defence, and Samson-like, drags Paul, 
 head and shoulders, into " Secularization!" The apostle Paul an instance 
 of Location ! The apostle Paul an illustration of Centralization ! 
 The apostle Paul brought forward to justify the Secularization of a gos- 
 pel minister ! Paul who, as a marvellous incident in his history, " dwelt 
 two whole years in his own hired house," at Rome, because he was a 
 prisoner and could not leave the imperial city, but who then " received 
 all that came in to h\m^ preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those 
 things which concern the Lord Jesus;"" — Paul, who "from Jerusalem, 
 and round about unto lllyricum, fully preached the gospel of Christ ;" — 
 Paul, who was, "in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, 
 in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft, (like Brother C. Prest,) in jour- 
 neyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, &c., in weariness 
 and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
 in cold and nakedness : " — this is the man held up, by The Watchman, as 
 a scriptural apostolic illustration and vindication of the Wesleyan Cen- 
 tralized, Secularized, Located ! " Misfortune," quoth the proverb, 
 "gives a man strange bedfellows ;" " Drowning men catch at straws," 
 is another wise saw ; and the pressing difficulties of an argument urge 
 men to the most monstrous and absurd subterfuges ! 
 
 " What may be termed," quoth The Watchman, " the temporalities 
 of the church, occupied a considerable share of his attention, as is 
 apparent from his writings ; but the manner in which he blends these 
 things with matters strictly spiritual, shews that the two were in his view, 
 perfectly accordant with each other." What may be termed the temporal- 
 ities. " When persons write and speak thus, they awaken suspicion 
 that they are anxious to avoid" meeting the question at issue, and to cover 
 over the conscious weakness of the cause they have espoused. Does The 
 Watchman mean to affirm, that Paul was located and centralized as our 
 located and centrahzed are? " The manner in which he blended these 
 two things" — aye, that is the point. Do Messrs. i\Iason, Bunting, 
 Alder, Beecham, Scott, Hoole, thus blend the two? But think of 
 
54 
 
 Paul shut up in Jerusalem, or in Antioch, or in Athens, or in Rome, 
 or any other metropolitan city, for twelve, eighteen, twenty-five, nearly 
 thirty years, and loathe to leave it ! It is the very antipodes of Paul ! 
 It is a libel on that unparallelled minister of Christ ! Paul for a quar- 
 ter of a century in a metropolitan city, with hundreds of thousands of 
 perishing sinners around him, and so taken up with financial matters, 
 legislative proceedings, educational statistics, and " what may be termed 
 the temporaHties of the church," that his zeal for the conversion 
 of these Christless thousands, deems it onerous work to preach to them 
 for years in succession, but one sermon per week, and hardly that! 
 This Paul, who when he went to Athens, so rich in every object, both of 
 nature and art, that could arrest the attention of a man of taste and 
 genius and erudition, only beheld their superstition, and only laboured to 
 preach Christ to them I What an argument for infidels ! Did Gibbon 
 himself ever insinuate a viler calumny against the genius of apostolic Chris- 
 tianity ? Paul was all but ubiquitous ; his zeal was untiring, and his 
 attention to the temporalities involved much more of giving advice to 
 others how to manage them, than it illustrates how deeply a christian 
 minister may be steeped in them, without hazarding his spirituality of 
 mind and his ministerial character ! The Watchman must have been 
 driven to a corner, so much as to name this illustrious man in so incon- 
 gruous and inapposite a connexion ! Nor less apt is he in his reference 
 to the closing portion of the i5th chapter of the first epistle to the 
 Corinthians. Had our Locators and Centralizers always ""blended the 
 two " as Paul did, or had they come within a reasonable approach to it, 
 the Fly Sheets would never have contained the powerful reasoning, the 
 distressing facts, the painful disclosures,, with which they abound. Never, 
 never again, let the noble, self-denying, laborious, unwearied, disin- 
 terested apostle of the Gentiles, be so dishonoured as to be called up, as 
 was Samuel by the witch of Endor, to give his sanction to a system as 
 much at variance with his practice, as the ease and pomp of an English 
 bishop, dean or rector, differs from the habits of a Schwartz, a Brainerd, 
 a Williams, or a Shaw! 
 
 The Watchman having sought to bolster up his tumbling-down argu- 
 ment by the life, labours, and zeal of him who was not behind the 
 '' chiefest of the apostles," seeks another confirmation of his argument 
 in the life, labours, and zeal, of one who will ever stand distinguished 
 among the modern apostles of Christianity. The Watchman is certainly 
 a bold and chivalrous fellow. He aims at the stars, if he does not reach 
 
them : he attempts high argument, if he does not accomplish it ; he calls 
 mighty spirits, not from the " vasty deep," but from the loftiest heights 
 of pure, disinterested, unparallelled ministerial zeal, whether they come 
 or not at his bidding. Having supoenaed the chief of the inspired 
 apostles to vindicate the ease, parade, and secular habits of the central- 
 ized and located of Methodism, he summons to the court, and places in 
 the witness-box, one who in labours, in self-denial, in unwearied constancy 
 in preaching Christ, until " the weary wheels of life stood still," is 
 second to no uninsjiired man ! A singular selection ! John Wesley a 
 type of " Location, Centralization, Secularization ! ! ! " The Watchman 
 must have been dreaming ! His compositor or printer's devil must have 
 played a joke on him ; and, instead of the " masterly argument" which 
 a "Junior Wesleyan "* has discovered in this wondrous composition, must 
 have substituted this admirable piece of practical satire and sarcasm 
 against the evils so loudly complained of in the Fly Sheets ! 
 
 These observations, however, shall be considered as though The 
 Watchman had not been nodding, or one of its officers had not been 
 practising a hoax upon its too incautious and somnolent editor. " Few 
 ministers," quoth The Watchman ; — and here he speaketh truly, but not 
 wisely, nor to the building up of his cause ; — " Few ministers of the 
 gospel have been more extensively engaged in the management of church 
 affairs than Mr. Wesley ; but were his spirituality and ministerial useful- 
 ness injured by his literary labours, and oversight and direction of all 
 affairs, temporal as well as spiritual, of the society which was founded by 
 his labours?" No, for Wesley '^blended these two," as previously 
 shewn, much in the same way as Paul of Tarsus did. He took effectual 
 means to neutralize what he well knew was their tendency. Did John 
 Wesley " squat" himself for a quarter of a century in the metropolis, 
 rarely shewing himself, except on some great public occasion, in the 
 provinces? Did John Wesley confine his attention exclusively, six days 
 out of the seven, for six, for twelve, for eighteeen, for mure than twenty- 
 
 * Eveiy one will readily believe, that the letter in The 'Watchman for Nov. li"). is the produc- 
 tion of one not only " Junior" in years, but "Junior" in thought. " Eveiy true Wesleyan must 
 have read with delight the triumphant refutation you have fm-uished, to one of the vilest speci- 
 mens of Jesuitical sophistic ever penned against Methodism, to wit, — ' The tlu-ee great bancs to 
 prosperity— Centralization, Location, and Secularization,' &c. The occasion of this controversy 
 will hereafter be less dei)lored, because of the unanswerable arguments which liave been urgr^d 
 to repel false charges, and the masterly defence of Methodism and the Conference, which has 
 been placed before the Wesleyan public, through your medium." Sm-ely an enemy or a flat- 
 terer hath done this ! Some playful lad has been tiymg his tirst hoiui on the uususpectiDg 
 Editor, and is now laughing at his boyish success ! 
 
56 
 
 fire, and almost thirty years, to the temporal matters of the society ? 
 Did John Wesley decline, — and on the plea of the pressure of " what 
 may be termed the temporalities of the church," — preaching a single 
 sermon on a week night for years together : and was John Wesley con- 
 tent with delivering his soul once on a sabbath on the average for years 
 together: and was John Wesley glad to get some substitute for this 
 occasional ministry in the word and doctrine, so as to almost bid adieu to 
 the pulpit, and to make his appearance there one of the wonders of the 
 age? John Wesley an illustration that the modern system of " Location, 
 Centralization, and Secularization," vvijl not injure a man's " Spirituahty 
 and ministerial usefulness ! " Who would have expected to see his name 
 in this connexion ? A man who, for ministerial toils, and for missionary 
 spirit, and for self-denying habits, through a long life, came as nearly up 
 to the blessed apostle Paul as any uninspired man ! A man who rarely 
 allowed a day in the week, save Saturday, to pass without preaching, and 
 not seldom twice, three times, and even four times in the day ; — a man 
 who preached oftener out of doors in one year than these located ones 
 have in all their lives ; — a man who, besides this constant preaching, 
 occupied much of his other time in society meetings of the most spiritual 
 • and devotional class: — his life, forsooth, shews how possible it is to 
 " blend the two!" The case must be desperate that has recourse to 
 such evidence as this ! John Wesley would look aghast at "Hill's Ar- 
 rangement," p.p. 2, 15, 27, 44, 83, 91, 113, &c. He would hardly be- 
 lieve these were the stations of his itinerant " sons in the gospel ;" he 
 would be surprised, perhaps shocked, to hear these " Located Centra- 
 lizers " laud and hold him up as the model for methodist preachers ! 
 John Wesley stationing a preacher in London for 29 years successively ; 
 appointing a preacher of the gospel lor 25 years successively to superin- 
 tend a publisher's office, and a book establishment ! If there be any 
 thing hbellous in the Fly Sheets, here is a heavier libel on the character 
 of the ilhustrious dead — John Wesley. His name alone repudiates the 
 connexion in which The Watchman has so ingloriously placed it, and 
 where, like liglit, it makes so manifest the evil and the deteriorating effects 
 upon Methodism of a system of Location, Centrahzation, and Seculariza- 
 tion, which was abhorrent to Wesley as sin itself! 
 
 The oracle shall speak on : " The preachers whom Mr. Wesley called 
 to his help were the principal salesmen of the books which he provided 
 for the instruction of the people, and wherever they went to preach the 
 gospel they carried them But did the practice generate in them a 
 
57 
 
 mercenary, worldly spirit, and deprive their ministry of unction and 
 success ?" As these salesmen were neither located, nor centralized, but 
 went about preaching as well as selling, the evidence may be dismissed as 
 not bearing upon the question how far " Secularization" is a necessary 
 effect of " Location and Centralization." 
 
 *■' Mr. Benson was shut up fqr a long time in London, employed on 
 the week days in the duties of the editorship ; and Dr. A. Clarke also 
 was extensively occupied, a considerable number of years, with public 
 engagements : but did these engagements injure the work of religion in 
 
 their souls, or render their ministry less effective? One of the public 
 
 undertakings of Dr. Clarke was not, indeed, ecclesiastical at all, but . 
 
 will those who now so loudly declaim on ' Secularization,' venture to 
 
 assert that Dr. Clarke yielded to a secular spirit, and that his public 
 ministry lost, in consequence, its spirituality, influence, and power ? " 
 One reply might be, if an editor could retain his spirituahty and minister- 
 rial unction after filling the office seventeen years, it does not follow that 
 a book-steward would to the close of a quarter of a century : another 
 reply is, that whilst these two distinguished men — Benson and Clarke — 
 remained in London, few preachers in the connexion filled their pulpits 
 more frequently, and attended the various spiritual meetings of the socie- 
 ties more conscientiously than they. Preaching was not to them a bur- 
 then; and, therefore, a rare event, escaped from whenever escape was 
 possible. This makes a most material difference, and destroys the paral- 
 lel attempted as effectually as an acid neutralizes an alkali. 
 
 " Werrefrain," continues The Watchman, "from pursuing any fur- 
 ther this style of remark, under the conviction that it would be a reflec- 
 tion upon the great Head of the Church, seriously to argue, that a loss 
 of spirituality, arid a decrease of ministerial efficiency, do not necessarily 
 result from an attention, on the part of the ministers of the gospel, to any 
 of those church-matters on which the support and extension of the 
 church are made materially to depend. We dare not summon the 
 Almighty to the bar of human reason, and presumptuously enquire 
 whether a practical regard to those things which He has rendered 
 indispensable, is not inconsistent with the sacredness- of the ministerial 
 character,'" And what Wesleyan presumes to do this? In what page, 
 sentence, line, word of the Fly Sheets, is this presumption seen ? The 
 Watchman, before retiring from the field, pleased with having raised this 
 note of triumph, should have first proved that God has " rendered it 
 indispensable," for the " maintenance and extension of his cause, that 
 
 E 
 
58 
 
 one minister of Christ's gospel should be located in London between 
 twenty and thirty years ! that another minister of Christ's gospel should 
 rival in his attention to business, six days out of seven, for between 
 twenty and thirty years, a leading London publisher ; that other ministers 
 of Christ's gospel are, by an ordinance of the great Head of the Church, 
 so immersed in temporalities, that a weekly discourse is the very maximum 
 proportion of preaching Christ's blessed gospel, to be expected from them 
 for twenty to thirty years. If The Watchman had proved that this was 
 " rendered indispensable " by God's ordination, no Wesleyan would 
 have presumed to set up his folly against divine wisdom. But after the 
 " masterly argument," and the " triumphant refutation " of The Watch- 
 man, there are Wesleyans who will presume still to ask how this system 
 ■works ; who will require abler arguments and stronger facts than yet 
 adduced, to satisfy them either that the system works well, or that it is in 
 accordance with the spirit of the apostles who said " to the multitude of 
 the disciples. It is not reason that we should leave the word of God^ and 
 serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of 
 honest report, full of the Holy G-host and wisdom, whom we may appoint 
 over this business. But ive will give ourselves continually to prayer^ 
 and to the ministry of the woku." — Acts vi. 2 — 4. 
 
 " What decision, then, may we now ask," enquires The Watchman, 
 
 *' are we to pronounce upon the entire case ? We have seen that not 
 
 any of these alleged causes is injurious in itself; and we cannot, there- 
 fore, conceive, how the union of the three, each harmless in itself, can 
 
 possibly be unfavourable to the Society's interests If our readers are 
 
 by this time convinced — and we flatter ourselves those are who are willing 
 to be convinced — that the alleged ' three great banes ' to prosperity are 
 
 no hanes at all ; then are they prepared with ourselves to attach its 
 
 true value to the exhortatory language of ' An Englishman,' when he 
 recommends the Wesleyan people not to forget ' what has grown out ' of 
 Location, Centralization, and Secularization." The last words of The 
 Watchman shall be left now to sink or swim according to the specific 
 gravity of the waters into which they fall. 
 
 IV. Mission House Expenditure. In the Fly Sheets, No. 1, p. 
 11, 12, is given a tabular view of the expenditure for the Home depart- 
 ment of our Missions. On this table the writers observe; — 
 
 "1. The calculations are taken for a period of thirteen years : from 
 1833 to 1845. 
 
59 
 
 2, From 1833 to 1836, there were only three Secretaries on the 
 reports ; consequently, as the average is for four, it will be in favour of 
 the three. 
 
 3. From 1834 to 1843, the Repairs, Furniture, Coals, Candles, 
 Rates, Taxes, &c., of the Blission House ^ were mixed up with the 
 Houses of the Secretaries. But this is of little importance ; for when 
 the covering v/as taken off, the expenses absolutely accumulated on the 
 
 part of the Secretaries The Mission House and the houses of the 
 
 Secretaries cost, in 1836, £769. 17s. 4d. ; in 1837, £782. 16s. 8d. ; in 
 1841, £606. 17s. lOd. ; in 1842, which was the year before they were 
 separated^ £645. 5s. 3d. ; whereas, the cost in the same items, for the 
 Secretaries' Houses alone, amounted in 1843, the year after the separa- 
 tion, to £929. 13s. 6d. ; in 1844, to £820. 19s. 9d. ; in 1845, to £864. 
 18s. 5d. The less, therefore, this part of the expenditure is explored the 
 better. (No, no, the sooner, and the more rigorously this extraordinary 
 fact, taken from the Annual Reports, is enquired into, the better. The 
 items for repairs and furniture seem most lavish, excessive, unaccount- 
 able, incredible, unless the Secretaries' Houses are little palaces.) The 
 article of furniture* alone is sufficient to furnish the houses of a whole 
 village. Either there must have been wanton destruction, — the houses 
 must be stocked like furniture warehouses, — or the prominence given to 
 the article must have been to serve as a decoy to something else. 
 
 4 Here we find several omissions all of which tell in the 
 
 shape of perquisites Travelling expenses, which, in the case of Dr. 
 
 Alder, will be heavy, as he travels in the first class carriages, and fre- 
 quently stops at the first inns, to the great pain of our best friends, who 
 ask where the moral feeling of a man is who prefers the mixed company 
 of an Hotel to the rehgious quiet of a Wesley an family ? We may just 
 state that we have a long list of the places, and we are not without a 
 tolerably correct knowledge of several of the charges This gentle- 
 man refuses to charge for his expenses in the country ; he takes them to 
 
 London without a single provincial check, while his brethren have to 
 
 undergo an annual drilling in the District Committee on the subject of 
 
 * It is generally rumoured that a costly article of fm-niture has recently been introduced into 
 Doctor Alder's house — Library shelves, at an expense of seventy poands hai-d cash ! Who pays 
 for this extravagance ? The subscribers to the fund ! At the veiy time, too, when an appeal — 
 "urgent and important," — is circulated through the country urging more supplies! Is all 
 shame fled ? Will the force of efifronteiy go to the veiy extreme of daring ? Missionaries pur 
 on the lowest scale of diet and living ; subscribers urged to renewed liberality ; treasurers and 
 oommittees stimulated to greater efforts in an emergency of a very tlu-eateniug nature ; and 
 seventy pounds spent in librai-y shelves for one of the Secretaiies ! It is intolerable. 
 
60 
 
 economy and retrenchment. The hard treatment, scanty allowance, and 
 threatenings to abridge still more the stipends of the Missionaries, render 
 it doubly painful, when it is known, that the screw is put on by persons 
 who are at ease at home, and fed on the fat of the land. 
 
 5. Exclusive of the five items just noticed [they are ommitted in 
 this pamphlet] which will form a round sum during the year, each 
 Secretary has cost the Missionary fund, on an average, for the last thir- 
 teen years, a sum of ,£373. 7s. per annum. A handsome sum for a man 
 and his wife — upwards of one guinea per day ! ! ! Add the other 
 items, with the exoeption of travelling expenses and the advantage of a 
 lodging house for Missionaries — all of which enhance the value of the 
 
 office and it will be found, that these four men have cost the fund, 
 
 not less than £500. per man, or Two Thousand per annum ! And, 
 yet, this is not all ; for, 
 
 6. We have another entry, in connexion with the salaries, which 
 implies much more than is expressed. Whatever is actually received, 
 there is still more in the rear : the amount received is only ' in part.' 
 
 The ever memorable William Dawson v/as not allowed to go on the 
 Mission Fund : it was too sacred a thing for him ; the connexion, there- 
 fore, was to be traversed from one end to the other to raise an annuity 
 for him to do the drudgery of these four privileged beings, when the 
 paltry sum of £150. per annum could only be raised for him. A short 
 
 time after this, Mr. Jackson, of Manchester, was handed forward, 
 
 and so, the Missionary Fund, which was too ecclesiastical in its charac- 
 ter to be touched by a layman like Dawson — but who, nevertheless, 
 preached and speechified more than the four apostolic Secretaries — was 
 to be saddled with a man, his wife, and nine children, at a cost of £200. 
 
 a year exclusive of travelling expenses!! Think again of this poor 
 
 fellow, with a wife and nine children, being indulged with £200.* and 
 Doctor Alder and his lady costing the fund £500. at least ; and Dawson 
 only £150. 
 
 Whatever wriggHng, shuffling, and softening there may be, we have a 
 right, as subscribers to the Missionary Fund, to know what becomes of 
 our monies, and whether retrenchments cannot be made in the metropolis 
 as well as in the provinces. We have in these ' pickings ' alone a sub- 
 stantial reason for location." — Fly Sheets, No. 1, p.p. 13 — 15. 
 
 * "We Lope vre are understood; and, if the office is necessai-y, (that of lay-agent,) and the 
 man is qualitied for it, we shall rejoice in the addition of £00. being made to liis saluiy."— Fly 
 Sheets, iS'o. 3, p. 14, 
 
61 
 
 " We have shewn that the cost of the Mission House is excessive^ 
 averaging for each Secretary £500. per annum. We have asked why 
 four Secretaries, and one lay-agent, besides clerks, are necessary in the 
 Wesleyan Missionary House, when two Secretaries can transact the 
 business of the London Missionary Society ? And who has given us an 
 
 answer? Doctor Alder could be spared for Canada some months 
 
 Doctor Bunting has not been seen at the Mission House for lengthened 
 
 periods together three of the Secretaries — learned Doctor's of course 
 
 — have be(m missing at once. We have asked, why an independent 
 committee of examination of the expenditure of our Missions, has not 
 
 been appointed and who has given us an answer? We have stated, 
 
 that whilst the Missionary Secretaries have cost the society £2000. annu- 
 ally, the labourers abroad have had their salaries cut down, their smallest 
 items of incidental expenses most unmercifully examined, and reductions 
 in the income of our heroic, self-denying Missionaries made to such an 
 extent, that some of them have, to our knowledge, bitterly complained ; 
 and yet, while all this close shaving is going on abroad, by orders from 
 Somerset House, Doctor Alder, forsooth, is allowed to travel by post- 
 chaise, in tirst-class carriages, and to put up at first-rate hotels ; and we 
 have asked plainly, ' Is this right? Is it just? ' And none of the well- 
 paid functionaries, to this moment, has dared to give a reply. Why ? 
 The Secretary knows too well that the fiicts are undeniable ; — that if he 
 were venturous enough to give them a denial, we should give time, place, 
 date, inn, — every detail : aye, even to the expensive bills themselves, 
 with their curious and suspicious items." — Fly Sheets, No. 4, p. 89.* 
 
 As these facts become known in the Wesleyan body, it will become 
 necessary that an enquiry — not of, Who first circulated them ? but of, 
 
 * An excellent letter appeared in the Wesleyan of June 22, 1848, entitled "TIio Mission 
 House and its Management." The writer says, " I find their (the Missiouanes') income aver- 
 aged, in Van Dieman's laud, £193. ; in Hudson's Bay, not JE200. a year; and in other districts 
 not so much ; while in England, the Iny-agent, who does just the work of a city missionary, 
 exclusive of travelling, has .{■377. 14s. Id. The town Secretaries had among them the sum of 
 £1356. 13s. 8d. last year, besides travelling expenses. Let the Committee Uiink of this when 
 
 they call upon the Missionaries to retrench. Let them ask the Secretaries to begin at home 
 
 Is it too much to ask, that a Committee be appointed, of grntleraen actively cngafied in the 
 ■Mission cause, but not connected with the oflcials at the Centenaiy Hall, to examine into the 
 accounts, and to report to the subscribers what reductions could be made in the ojfice and in the 
 saUiries of the Secretaries ? The labourer is worthy of his hire; but why should the labour- 
 ers (?) at the Mission House have double the salaiy of London circuit preachers, or the forei<rn 
 
 missionaries} Do they work harder ? Are they more zealous, devoted, holy? Cannot f wo, 
 
 or at most three, do all the work that is nominally done by four ? Can any one, on going on 
 business to the Mission House, see any other than Mr. Hoole ? \Miere are the three U. D.'s ? 
 Are they engaged in their rooms, or are they found snugly at home ? " 
 
62 
 
 Are these things so ? — be instituted. General assertions, made by the 
 general Secretaries, as to the items of home expenditure for printing, 
 or such as that made by Mr. Heald, v/ho said that he was ashamed to see 
 one of the secretaries' houses, so badly was it furnished, will not inspire 
 confidence in the administration of our Mission House finances for the 
 Home department. As the facts have begun, by means of The V/atch- 
 man and The Wesleyan, to ooze out into public, — for their own credit, 
 for the satisfaction of the subscribers, and for the conviction of the Fly 
 Sheets of lying slanders, — the Missionary Secretaries should furnish afl 
 independent committee with the opportunity of examining their entire 
 financial proceedings for the last twelve years ; and then issue a report 
 that will prove, that not alone in the foreign stations, but that also and 
 equally in personal expenses of the home department, the most conscien- 
 tious economy has been observed ; — that is, if they can do so. 
 
 Till this is done, the Fly Sheets may be denounced, their authors cen- 
 sured, declarations affirming their falsehood numerously signed by minis- 
 ters, re-issue upon re-issue of obnoxious and inquisitorial tests make 
 their appearance, Manchester Minor District Meetings by the perversion 
 of a law which itself involves an impious rejection of the law of Christ 
 be repeated till the tyranny is intolerable ; but all this M-ill not have the 
 effect of giving confidence to the Wesleyan body as to the wise, economi- 
 cal, and disinterested expenditure of Missionary monies. A well drawn 
 up report, after an impartial examination of all docum.ents, ledgers, and 
 officials,* signed by men, a majority of whom have not been officially con- 
 nected with the Centenary Hall, or any other great centre of " Location, 
 
 * Tiie Fly Sheets have intimated that there is great danger, lest by retaining men of Iunit«.d 
 incomes in offices which cause considerable sums of money to pass through their hands, they 
 should be tempted, especially if tlie system favours their continuance in such offices for an 
 unlimited period, to misappropriate, and apply them to their own uses. For this uncharitable 
 suspicion, for this gi'oundless apprehension, they have been most severely censured as traducers 
 a nd false accusers of the bretln-en. Are they so ? Was there no ground of apprehension ? Does 
 not evei7 man see that when men of limited incomes are li\-iug luxuriously either as to viands 
 or to drinks, in their mode of travelling, or their habits on the road, they must either get fright- 
 fully into debt, or be making too free with money not ther own ? The conclusion is inevitable. 
 What is the fact ? Providence, at this very juncture, when by Osborn's Test Act Screw, and Eunr 
 ting's Manchester Inquisition, the interested parties are employing all their means to put down 
 the Fly Sheets, and to visit witli condign punishment their authors if found to be within their 
 reach ; at this veiy juncture, rnoviDENCE itself issues forth a Fly Sheet to the wiiole connexion, 
 by bringing to light a fact sustaining one of the heaviest chaa-ges of the Fly Sheets. It is now 
 no secret. It is knoM-n in tovvn and countiy; by laymen and by minislers : in London it is the 
 common talk : it has produced consternation ; it has induced some, who before treated the Fly 
 Sheets as a pack of lies, to believe that they are not so false in other particulars, since they 
 prove correct in one of their most awful allegations— embezzlement of public funds. A Trea- 
 
C3 
 
 Centralization, and Secularization," would be worth =£10,000. just now 
 to the Missionary Society. It ought to be furnished. The Secretaries 
 may flatter themselves that it is unnecessary. They do not hear what is 
 said in the provinces. They do not even hear what is siiid in the 
 metropolis. The Fly Sheets on this point are only the organ of Wes- 
 leyan opinion. And if the officials at the Mission House will keep their 
 affairs wrapped up in mystery, if they will not explain these heavy 
 furniture items, if they will not explain the necessity of the large per- 
 sonal expenditure, instead of the Fly Sheets, they will have public opinion, 
 in tones not to be mistaken, and with an authority not to be resisted, 
 summoning them to its bar, and demanding an account of their steward- 
 ship. The Mission House v/ill be searched : nothing can prevent it. 
 The time is not distant. 
 
 V. The Presidential Chair. " Though," say the Fly |Sheets, 
 '"'' the world may be disposed to think lightly of the office of the President 
 of a Y*^esleyan Conference, it may be doubted whether a more really 
 honourable office exists than that of a minister of Jesus Christ, chosen 
 by the spontaneous suffrages of five hundred of his brethren to preside 
 over them Its qualifications are, — 
 
 1. Age. We may safely predict that the Conference will not again 
 select for its President a man of (onlyj twenty years standing, as in the 
 case of Mr. Bunting. It is not for the honour of the body: it is scarcely 
 an ultimate advantage to himself. Thirty, or between that and forty 
 years of ministerial labour, seem desirable — and that spent in the regular 
 
 surer of one is under suspension. Alreiidy Tory laymen are saying — this is a fact — That our 
 financial accounts must undergo impartial investigation hi every department, or the confidence 
 of the body will be seriously afFocted ; and that more frequent changes must be made of our 
 principal officers. The matter cannot now resr, where it is. Honourable men, who hold other 
 equally and similarly responsible positions, will now be anxious for a thorough examiuatiou into 
 their respective depaitments, that they may stand free of all suspicion of malappropriation of 
 the contributions of the body. — But what have the auditors of this Treasurer's accounts been 
 about, that they did not discover defalcations amounliug to some thousands ? Who are they ? 
 Are they among the located ? 
 
 These remarks will probably be severely censured. Ey whom? By none more severely 
 than by those Avho could hardly have been without suspicion of soine of the delinquencies of the 
 party in question. By none more severely tlian by those whose activity and zciil in getting 
 private subscriptions in another case suggest the idea, tliat a man unfit to superintend a journal 
 ^t home, is a very lit person to exercise that supcn'ision abroad, and on a ISIission station too. 
 .By none more severely than by those who wink at an official slop shop for the outfit of Wesleyau 
 Missionaries, where the best articles may be had at the lowest prices— «n(J may not be .-—parties 
 at home and abroad, in town and in countiy, will understand the allusion, even if none should 
 exclaim, "Ah, I was duped tliere." Let Sampson's companions puzzle out this riddle. 
 
64 
 
 ministerial work — that the man may be thoroughly acquainted with the 
 
 workings of the system Men who are located are not the men to be 
 
 elected they want the proper sympathies requisite for the discharge of 
 
 the duty : their habits and associations render them cold, distant, strange. 
 Men engaged in the work can alone sympathise with their fellows. 
 
 2. Wisdom. Without this the head will require a head ; — a prompter 
 by his side who either voluntarily, officiously, or mechanically, turns to 
 him. 
 
 3. Firmness. This is necessary to control and command ; but then 
 it must steer clear of obstinacy. How would such a man as Joseph 
 Taylor, all gentleness, have met a storm ? 
 
 4. Dignity. 
 
 No man possessed of these qualifications should be deemed ineligible ; 
 or even less eligible because of his political principles. Think of the 
 absurdity of rejecting any man, simply because he is known not to be a 
 tory ! or because he has been known to express a doubt whether the union 
 of Church and State works well for either party ! — Fly Sheets, No. 2, 
 p.p. 3—6. 
 
 " The impropriety of re-electing to the office any who have filled it, 
 while there are others equally eligible, as to qualification, who have not 
 yet been so honoured," is thus put by the writers of the Fly Sheets : 
 
 "1. The honours of the body are denied to those who are equally 
 entitled to them 
 
 2. The respectability of the body is prostrated. Instead of having 
 twelve patriarchs to look up to in twelve elections, the brethren are 
 favoured with four, in consequence of triple elections ; instead of ' twenty 
 four elders ' we are furnished with eight : and these passing from little 
 more than boyhood to manhood, on their third election, and not even 
 
 then ripe for veneration Where is the respect due from the body at 
 
 large to five or six comparatively young men, — say, Bunting, Jackson, 
 Grindrod, Scott, &c., elevated above their brethren, instead of a score of 
 sages, venerable for years, with the wisdom and experience of the Church 
 
 embodied in them ? And what must be the opinion of other sections 
 
 of the church, when they perceive us practically declaring, that there are 
 only three or four men in the whole Conference, capable of filling the 
 Presidential Chair ? — these men occupying it for a series of years, and 
 thus confirming, though in reference to one of the largest christian 
 communities in the Protestant world, the low views which many have 
 entertained of the talents and attainments of Methodist preachers ! 
 
Go 
 
 3. The liberties of the body are jeopardized. However it may be 
 accounted for, the first election of a man (and his discharge of his duty) 
 has had a freshness about it, seldom, perhaps, never equalled on the 
 repetition of the honour. Doctor Bunting, in his first election, did more 
 of unmixed good to the connexion, (or less evil, which you will,) than in 
 any of his subsequent elections 
 
 4. Re-election is no exaltation Were it the understood usuage 
 
 not to re-elect, no man could deem himself slighted for not being re- 
 chosen. Not to be chosen again when eligible, is a slight ; almost as bad 
 as not being chosen at all. But all cannot be re-elected ; therefore, this 
 serious evil should be removed. 
 
 5. It is a piece of flagrant injustice to others of equal, and, in 
 many instances, superior claims to the persons elected, whose wisdom and 
 experience, as in the case of Mr. Stanley, are placed under a bushel, by 
 lesser lights being put in their place. 
 
 6. It is unnecessary. There are other men able to fill the office. 
 Who ever filled it more creditably than Mr. Stanley ? (who was so long 
 kept out of it for no other reason than that he was known to be a liberal.) 
 Actual experience and practice in the office, cannot be employed as an 
 argument ; for — First, That would operate against any man's entering 
 upon it, since no one could acquire its experience till he first filled it. 
 Secondly, The practical working of the office is familiar to every man 
 that attends Conference, and on which he may be said to receive lessons 
 annually, in the conduct of those who fill it. Thirdly, There are certain 
 contingencies that cannot be foreseen, respecting which a re-elected 
 President would feel himself as awkwardly placed, as any other member 
 of the Conference. 
 
 No private or party consideration should be allowed either to pro- 
 mote or to hinder an election to this office To secure elections, 
 
 arguments have frequently been resorted to, not only pitiful in the 
 extreme, but utterly derogatory to christian character. Firmness was 
 pleaded to secure the re-election of Mr. Reece, it being affirmed that he 
 would be able to meet the Warrenite storm at Sheffield. This, with 
 some who employed it, was only another word for obstinacy, which was 
 no less than a reflection on the man himself; nor would such a quality 
 have disturbed the minds of those who put it forth as an excellence. 
 Loyalty was pleaded by the same party on behalf of Mr. Stephens, at 
 the Manchester Conference; — a man who, because of his preaching king 
 George more than King Jesus, gave great offence to the people, and 
 
sacrificed nearly five hundred members of the Society, through his 
 haughty, political bearing. The monument, it was urged, was to be 
 raised w^here the battle was fought ! and this irrespective of every other 
 qualification, or even private virtues, of which he had many. Honour 
 was advanced in favour of Mr. Grindrod's election at Leeds, he having 
 been actively engaged in the ill-fated organ case. Here again, the monu- 
 ment was to be erected on the battle-field, and the people to be addition- 
 ally irritated by the preferment. ' Well,' said Doctor Clarke to Doctor 
 Townley, ' I have known and loved you ; but I never thought you were 
 the man to move a resolution to white-wash these Leeds fellows : they 
 will never be white-washed to eternity.' This is, perhaps, too strong.... 
 Whiggism was urged against Mr. Stanley, by the London clique ; and, 
 yet, Mr. Atherton, another whig, was nominated by the tories, when, in 
 order to serve a purpose, it became convenient to forget his political sins. 
 Other arguments, that have been employed, are as contemptible as 
 the above. '' Mr. T. Jackson ought to be re-elected, because he had the 
 fag of the Centenary work, and he had the principal part of the work 
 of Mr. Lessey, his successor, to do.' On Mr. S. Jackson being named, 
 'Oh,' said one of the tory ex-presidents, Mie won't do; he has been 
 awkward some years ;' that is, not sufficiently supple for the party. 
 ' We cannot,' said another of them, give appearance to a man.' This is 
 
 as laughable as it is contemptible, and implies that Messrs. were 
 
 perfect beauties Just as the brethren were proceeding to vote, Doctor 
 
 Bunting said that the step he was going to take was unprecedented ; 
 that it had only within a few minutes entered his mind, and respecting 
 which he had the sanction of those around him — that it was very desir- 
 able, that united as they M-ere in reality, they should also keep the sem- 
 blance of it before the world ; and that as it appeared a very general 
 feeling on the part of the preachers, that a certain venerable minister, 
 (Mr. Atherton,) should be elected, he, and others with him, M'ho had 
 actually had other intentions when they came to Bristol, sliould submit 
 to the known desire of the mnjority, and give their votes to that venerable 
 man. On the face of this it is evident, — 
 
 1. That Doctor Bunting and his party had fixed on another man. 
 
 2. That they were so completely wrapped up in the plenitude of their 
 supposed power, owing to their plans and past success, that it was only 
 on the eve of the election that they discovered and felt their weakness. 
 
 3. That Doctor Bunting felt the impertinence of his position when 
 he stepped fortii as he did 
 
07 
 
 4. That he wished to impose upon others, hy conveying the impres- 
 sion, that Mr. Atherton's election was likely to be the result of his co- 
 operation, when it was firmly believed by the opposite party, that it really 
 
 did not make the difference of twenty votes It was well remarked — 
 
 aye, by a tory too, ' When the Doctor found he must fall, he ought to 
 have fLilIon with dignity ; and when he found he could not keep Mr. 
 Atherton out, he ought not to have appeared to help him, when it was 
 apparent enough that his professed help was only a cover to his own 
 
 defeat.' On a motion of thanks to the ex-president, (Mr. Stanley,) 
 
 Doctor Beaumont observed that he rejoiced in the choice made in 
 
 the President for the present year, on the ground that the Rev. W. 
 Atherton had never filled the office before, and expressed a hope that 
 henceforth Presidents would be chosen on this principle. This senti- 
 ment was loudly cheered by the majority; but Doctor Bunting 
 
 endeavoured to put the latter dov/n, by stating, that he was not speaking 
 to the point, but introducing matter " most unwarrantably and unjustifi- 
 ably " by referring to the "question of re-election," which, he 
 
 averred, was out of season. Doctor Beaumont came down upon him 
 with an advantage only equal to the force w'ith which he dealt out his 
 blows ; stating, in reply, that his remarks were neither unseasonable nor 
 unwarrantable; and that, if they w^ere, Doctor Bunting, of all men 
 in the world, should be the last to prefer such a charge, as he was 
 notorious for taking occasions, while speaking on one subject, of forstall- 
 ing the Conference upon others, that he might the more readily insinuate 
 his views and measures. Mr. Jackson was elected President by a 
 triumphant majority of 174 over Mr. Beecham ; on whose behalf the 
 clique exerted all their power both before and at Conference, but who 
 only obtained 5Q votes, — votes by ballot, be it remembered. The defeat 
 was complete, as they had strained every nerve to get him into the chair. 
 The vanquished could not conceal their chagrin. ' We thought that ice 
 ought not to vote for you, 7jou being the nominee uf a factiun!' Such 
 was the language with which the only man in the Conference who would 
 have had the temerity, and who would have been allowed the opportunity, 
 insulted the President, after he had taken the chair. ' The nominee of 
 a faction,' indeed ! 174 being the faction, and 54 being the Conference. 
 Any other man would have been clamoured down : would have been 
 compelled to make an apology. When, during the same Conference- — 
 and that was often — Doctor Beaumont came down upon the clique with 
 his avalanche powers, scores of voices at their highest pitdi, bellowed 
 
68 
 
 ' order, order ;' and shewed intense sensitiveness to decorum, modera- 
 tion, and meekness in the speaker : but when the President was insulted 
 to his face, in the open Conference, these throat-orators were quiet and 
 
 unmoved Whom was G. Morley, J. Taylor, E. Grindrod, or J. 
 
 Scott, the nominee of? Of Doctor Bunting. Surely 174 brethren 
 have as good a right to nominate as one. But the good Doctor forgot 
 his own towering assumptions when, himself filling the chair, he coolly 
 told the wondering and gaping brotherhood, that they were to look upon 
 him as John Wesley ! The very same chair (now) filled by the nominee 
 of a faction."*— Fly Sheets, No. 2, p.p. 6—10; No. 3, p.p. 16, 17; 
 No. 4, p.p. 17—19. 
 
 Not even The Watchman, that has come so valorously, and, according 
 to '^ S.," in a letter in The Watchman for Nov. 22, so successfully, 
 that he wishes the articles on Location, Centralization, and Seculariza- 
 tion, cheaply printed and extensively circulated ; — this pamphlet is circu- 
 lating them more widely, it is presumed, than some friends of Location 
 will desire, as the "" triumphant refutation " of The Watchman has been 
 itself exposed in all its sophisms and hollo wness ; — not even the Vfatch- 
 man has entered into the arena, and offered combat to the arguments of 
 the Fly Sheets, against re-elections. It may be because they are weak 
 and untenable ; that the wisdom and advantages of confining this office 
 to as few of the preachers as possible are so obvious that the case may be 
 left to its own merits, as one that speaks for itself. The Wesleyan pub- 
 lic will now be able to judge whether there is any, and how much there 
 is of, force in the arguments adduced to prevent the Conference from 
 electing preachers twice, thrice, and even four times, while others, not 
 less eligible than the choicest of the re-elected, have not the honour once 
 during their long, zealous, and labourious lives! That the general 
 opinion without is unfavourable to this monopoly of honour, will hardly 
 be doubted ]>y those who mix and converse freely, with, if not the elite ^ 
 the masses of the Wesleyan public. Doctor Newton evidently felt at the 
 Hull Conference the pressure of the arguments against re-election, that 
 had been urged during the year, as he observed, that, doubtless, except 
 in extraordinary cases, a man should not be re-elected to the office. 
 What an extra extraordinary case then must it be to justify a fourth 
 election. Members of other christian communities are led by this 
 monopoly of office to conclude, either that Methodism labours under a 
 
 * "Subsequently he struck the Conference with amazement by cL'simmg to have ' Uberty of 
 speech.' As though lie had ever been tongue-tied or gagged ! " 
 
69 
 
 sad paucity of men to fill honourably this office, or under a servile yoke 
 that prevents the Conference from doing itself the honour of shewing 
 that the Head of the Church has blessed us with men enough yearly to 
 fill this distinguished position in uninterrupted succession.* Besides, it 
 has a tendency to preserve that equality among presbyters so indispen- 
 sably necessary in a connexion like ours. A large and annually increasing 
 number of ex-Presidents could not form a junta: and the platform 
 would be inconveniently small, or most significantly and too strikingly 
 enlarged to contain them all: and thus another evil, in the estimation of 
 the writers of the Fly Sheets, would disappear : the platform would 
 soon arive wav under the weight of once-elected Presidents. Will they 
 stand or fall together ? 
 
 VI. The Platform. Many will not imderstand this term. 
 In the chapel where the Conference assembles, a platform is erected, on 
 which the President, the Secretary, the ex- Presidents, the Letter Writers, 
 Missionary Secretaries, School Governors, and other official, and semi- 
 official characters sit. The Fly Sheets regard this as an evil. Many 
 will think that the Fly Sheet writers are very captious, and very censori- 
 ous to devote several pages to such a trifle as this, and particularly as 
 
 * " Till the publication of No. 2 of the Fly Sheets, tliis matter had scarcely been discussed 
 any where, or by any one. It seemed to occur as a matter of coui'se, that the Presidential 
 ohair should be reserved for a very elect few ; who for life, as often as the constit.u'ion of the 
 body would allow, should engross this honour to themselves. Ko. 2 was a bomb-shell tlirown 
 into this coterie of Presidents elect. It exploded for ever the idea of its revolving in regular 
 but extremely limited cycles. The new idea spread like the hght of tlie morning. It is amiu- 
 
 ing hov>^ it commended itself to the judgment of candid men These reasons, we know, have 
 
 induced many preachers to declai-e themselves against the re-election of any man to tliis office. 
 
 The extent to vhich this opinion prevails will be severely tested when Doctor NewU>u 
 
 becomes eligible for a fourth time. Various pleas are assigned, even by such as are won 
 over to the non-re-election pilnciple, why in this instance, and in this only, it should liave the 
 go-bye. 
 
 ' If any man deserves this distinction. Doctor Newton desenxs it.' We cannot allow that any 
 preacher has either such peculiar qualifications for the office, or has such exU-aordinai-y pfrsoual 
 merit, that he deserve the hoiiour a fourth time, rather thim another a first time. He would 
 himself shrink from the supposition. ' If Doctor Newton has not the chair tliis year, then it will 
 go down in the history of Methodism that Doctor Bunting alone had tlie distinction of the 
 Presidency for the fourth-time.' This plea supposes the re-election to be an evil. Shall it be 
 
 repealed ? Our reply is 'Let the system begin and end in him.' It will be a beacon to all 
 
 futui-e Wesleyan legislators and constitution niendera. ' Doctor Newton was so ill-used at Hull 
 by the friends of Mr. Caughey that, in this instance, we should malic an exception to what 
 henceforth must be the general rule.' The set-otf against tliis plea is— For yeiu-s he has had a 
 unique honom* : that of an extraordinary commission to have no circuit duties except on the 
 Sabbath. For years he has been pennanent Sccretai^ of the Conference, has otice crossed the 
 Atlantic as the representative of the Wesleyan to the American Conference, and thrice already 
 
70 
 
 platforms are very common affairs at annual meetings, and are very inno- 
 cent things, and even very useful on public occasions. Granted. But 
 the Fly Sheets shall speak for themselves, before any observations are 
 made upon this part of their contents. 
 
 " We might be charged with a want of christian charity were we to 
 assert, that pride prompted the erection of the platform at our Confer- 
 ences. The presiding officer should be in such a position as to be 
 
 able to determine who is the speaker and what is the opinion of the 
 
 majority. All this may be done without the appendage of an unwieldly 
 
 platform The greatest outcry against our remarks will be from those 
 
 who occupy that elevated post : but then the opposition will be from an 
 interested party, whose hostility will be open to considerable suspi- 
 cion. We intend to be simply argumentative — to appeal to the unbiassed 
 judgment of all. If our arguments can he met^ let them he met. We 
 argue for our brethren on the floor of the house. 
 
 The following are the particulars to which we beg attention : — 
 
 1. The platform being of comparatively modern date, it cannot 
 claim any regard on account of age. Abstracted from the policy (which 
 introduced \i) it has neither beauty nor comeliness to plead. It is a 
 formless, unsightly, inconvenient monstrosity ; and would appear much 
 
 has he lilled the Presidential chair. Surely this is honour enough fro:n his brethren ; and may 
 be placed as an ample set-oif against any measure of dishonour which his friends may suppose 
 
 he has received from another quarter ! Besides, what will the Hull friends of Caughey think 
 
 of the party who set up this plea ? . . . . WOl it give them an exalted view of the Christianity of the 
 brethren, if they see them elevating a thrice-chaired Doctor to the chair again — not because 
 ihey dare pretend that he has any remarkable qualifications for it, but because on one occasion 
 they choose to make a poor collection?. .. .Make him president anywhere rather than Hull. 
 ' It will go near to breaking his heart if he be not re-elected this year.' We are loathe to believe 
 any thing of the kind. We would not have named it, though we have heard it from some of his 
 own friends, only that, on the supposition that it is a libel on him, it sei'ves to shew up the vile- 
 uess of tlie system against wMch we take up our pens. We do not represent this plea as the 
 statement of a fact. We hold him not to have so overweening a vanity and self-esteem as lo 
 suppose himself injui'ed, because he has not for the fom-th time, the Presidential chair, 
 when Fowler, Beaumont, HasweU, Lomas, Walton, &c., have not had it once. V/ell may 
 he exclaim, ' Heaven save me from my friends ! " The plea, if true, would be a most 
 powerful reason for keeping him out of the chau*, as furnishing the most distressing evidence 
 possible, that the system has been a hot-bed of vanity, littleness, and seltishuess, inducing a 
 hankering after honour that nothing will satisfy, and that makes an act of justice to the many 
 appear an insult and wrong to a petted favourite. ' If Doctor Newton be re-elected this time, 
 we will consent to oppose re-elections for ever after.' If re-elections be right, why not more of 
 them ? If WTong ; why this one ? ' If Doctor Newton be re-elected we shall have a change in 
 the seat of government, fcr his lady ivill have a country residence.' Stm-dy unmistakable oppo- 
 nents as we are to Centralization we should think we were paying too dear for om- whistle. 
 
 We add, if Doctor Newton be elected he excludes three worthy brethren for ever from this 
 honour. Can he approve of this ? " — Fly Shetts, No. 4, p.p. 3 — 5. 
 
71 
 
 better in the centre of a market-place, or in the front of a goal, mounted 
 by the executioner with his axe, than in the house of God, in the midst 
 of an assembly of christian ministers. 
 
 2. The brethren were not fully aware, at first, how it would work, 
 and were the less suspicious for some time, from the circumstance of 
 platforms being familiarized to the eye in Missionary Meetings. Its 
 introduction was sly, unobtrusive, and, at first, viewed as almost neces- 
 sary ; but, for some years past, its effects have been wofully felt : the 
 scaffold, as well as the platform, has been recognized. 
 
 3. There was no platform in Mr. Wesley's day : nor for many years 
 after ; and yet, when any thing does not suit the great ruler's taste or 
 purpose, no man pretends to greater scrupulosity, in any dejiarture from 
 the plans and proceedings of Mr. Wesley Just imagine the vener- 
 able shade of the departed Wesley to enter the Conference, and fix his 
 eye on this erection — this piece of parade — graced with four Missionary 
 Secretaries, three Letter Writers, four Secretaries to the Conference, two 
 Governors of Schools, with other functionaries, too numerous to mention ! 
 
 4. There is no platform in the House of Commons, raising a few 
 ex-ministers head and shoulders over their brethren ; nor in the General 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Why not imitate this dignity and 
 simplicity ? The Wesleyan platform is certainly unique in form, in 
 character, but obvious enough in intent and purpose. 
 
 5. It leads the young men (who may have to occupy it) to assume an 
 air of import;ince ; makes them forward, and officious. As ' shallow 
 draughts' of knowledge intoxicate the brain, so undue elevation not 
 unfrequently produces the same effect. Great heights are perilous to 
 weak heads. 
 
 6. It gives the few an undue advantage over the many. We have 
 often thought that arguments coming from that elevated place, — although 
 very light, when weighed in the balance, — have been taken to possess 
 unusual force, like light substances which acquire a momentum by falling 
 from a height. 
 
 7. Senior brethren, who have borne the burden and heat of the day, 
 are placed at the feet of comparatively young men. Till last Conference, 
 the venerable President, the Rev. J. Stanley, was placed at the feet of 
 Messrs. Jackson, Hannah, Scott, Fowler, Beecham, Alder, Barton, 
 Keeling, Farrar, &c., and Mr. Atherton and others, between 70 and 80 
 years of age, still remain there. 
 
 8. The whole apparatus is an anomaly. What can be more out of 
 
72 
 
 keeping than the President^ the highest officer, and a Letter Writer^ the 
 lowest officer, placed side by side? The President is hidden, in great 
 part, from view, by a huge box, like an auctioneer behind his desk. He 
 who is to preserve the assembly in a state of order and decorum, should 
 have his seat so elevated, as to give him the most perfect oversight and com- 
 mand of the assembly ; giving him in actual position, what he is officially, a 
 point of elevation which will at once place the entire assembly below him. 
 
 9. As by elevating a man to such an office, we ehter into a sort of 
 compact with him, and promise courteous and christian submission to 
 him while he is in it, it is necessary that his seat and insignia of office 
 should be so placed, as constantly to remind us of our compact. We 
 iind the position of affairs the very reverse of this. All on the platform 
 being next to equal to the eye, the persons around the President, especi- 
 ally Doctor Bunting, are often addressed instead of the President him- 
 self ; and hence a diminution, not only of dignity bat of attention and 
 influence. The satellites draw off the eye from Jupiter ; the men around 
 divide the attention of the house among themselves, v/hich ought to be 
 concentrated in the Chair : nor can it be otherwise, as every man expects 
 some attention, being led to conclude himself a person of some considera- 
 tion, having been placed there for the purpose of reminding the brethren 
 either of what he was, or of what he is. 
 
 10. Wherefore should all or any of those who have filled the office 
 of — say President, have any elevated seats, or any visible emblems of past 
 honours, unless they mean to state, that when a man has been once ad- 
 vanced to this dignity of office, he is never to descend from it again ? 
 And, if men, who have been inflated with the dignity of the office, seek 
 to be thus lifted up above their brethren, ought they to be indulged? 
 
 11. If those who have sustained the honour of this office continue 
 to be actuated by judgment, prudence, and a love of liberty, they will 
 neither seek, nor allow themselves to retain, any other prominence among 
 their brethren, than what their age, wisdom, gravity, and service to the 
 Connexion will give them. 
 
 12. But what claim can the Secretary, sub-Secretaries, Missionary 
 Secretaries, Theological Tutors, Clerks of the Journals, School Govern- 
 ors, Letter Writers, Representatives from Ireland, &c., have to a 
 place on the platform, some of whose offices require privacy rather than 
 publicity to an efficient discharge of them ; none of whom should either 
 be, or seem to be, seeking any other credit by their offices, than what 
 their behaviour in them fairly entitles them to. 
 
73 
 
 13. Pre-eminent modesty, humility, piety, and reflection, would 
 never permit the junior brethren of the connexion to place themselves 
 upon the platform, while any of their seniors, who are at least their equals 
 for talent, respectability, and service to the Connexion, are sitting on the 
 floor of the house : and were such compelled to take their place on the 
 platform, (and nothing but compulsion could place them there,) tl^v 
 would be the last to open their mouth on any disputed matter. 
 
 14. The presence of young men on the platform is not only flagrant 
 injustice to others of equal, and, in many instances of superior wisdom, 
 piety, and usefulness, but it is out of character even in an official point 
 of view. Why not place the Chairmen of such Districts as Bristol, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, &c., there? They are 
 as important personages as some of the brethren who grace (?) the 
 platform. 
 
 15. A Conference platform is any thing but a true representation of 
 the talent, piety, and glory of our body. The public naturally enough 
 suppose, that the men whom they see crowding the platforms on con- 
 ferential occasions, constitute the weight and very cream of our Con- 
 nexion ; and the men who ordinarily throng them on such occasions 
 evidently entertain and foster the idea. But is it so ? Far otherwise : 
 sometimes the very reverse. 
 
 16. Conference platforms are detrimental to the transaction of 
 business ; overawing the brethren on the floor of the house, ...infringing 
 on the liberties of the body, by giving to some who are on it, and to 
 others who are countenanced by it, a boldness bordering upon assump- 
 tion and tyranny. 
 
 17. The men on the platform practically constitute a party against 
 the brethren below ; defending and supporting each other on any remarks 
 ofi'ered on their plans, propositions, and speeches. Thus Doctor Alder 
 was carried through his Canadian case. The men have not only the 
 influence and honour attached to their offices, but they have the over- 
 whelming weight of the platform superadded. ..they work into each other's 
 hands. 
 
 18. The platform has been too long a kind of seat of government. 
 It could, till lately, carry almost every thing. It could dispose of the 
 Presidency with something like certainty. No measure could succeed to 
 which the platform opposed itself. No measure, however absurd, was 
 likely to fail, if proposed there. The last Conference began to shew 
 some signs of having borne this long enough. 
 
 F 
 
74 
 
 19. By some fatality a man, when raised to the refined atmosphere 
 of the Platform, seemed to lose all independence of thought. Mr. 
 Fowler may justly take to himself the credit of being the first who re- 
 sisted the Circean influence. He is of so sturdy a make, that the Presi- 
 dential Chair, when he arrives there, (which must be ere long,) will not 
 detract one atom from his independent bearing. Neither will it alter 
 the character of the venerable man — Mr. Stanley — who now so worthily 
 fills it. Mr. Fowler's elevation to one of the humble offices on the 
 platform was no more intended as a compliment, than it was expected he 
 
 would be transformed, and take the cue from others : but was aware 
 
 that every transaction was recorded in the pew : with a view to cripple 
 
 him, by furnishing him with other work, he was elevated to a place he 
 never loved, and where he sits as a speckled bird. The prophet saw 
 wheels within wheels in his day.* 
 
 20. The brethren on the Platform are too near the ear of the Pre- 
 sident, especially the quasi President's prompter Doctor Bunting, who is 
 
 seen always hovering round that quarter It is difficult for the 
 
 President to be preserved free from bias, on being within the imme- 
 diate range of a set of practised party men. 
 
 21 We enter our firm and solemn protest against the platform 
 
 as an unmitigated evil, and a stifler of the spirit of freedom. 
 
 As it is asked, whether in the case of the Missionary Secretaries there 
 is any reason why another six years' appointment should be made ; so, 
 in the same sly, but determined way, it should be asked whether there is 
 any just reason why the platform should remain. All upon the quarter- 
 deck will cry loud and long, Yes — yes — yes : but the brethren in the hold 
 will say, No — no, to a man." — Fly Sheets, No. 2, p.p. 11 — 16. 
 
 " But nothing short of a flooring will break the undue influence 
 
 of the platform. Let the brethren scan over, again and again, our re- 
 marks in No. 2 ; and never for a moment forget, that, independently of 
 other things, they are watched from that Observatory, f as to their 
 demeanour, the men with vJiom they seem most familiar, the expression 
 
 * Mr. Fowler resigned the humble office iu 1847, and re-appeai-ed among his bretlu-en on the 
 floor of the house, where " the Fov/lerlan note-book " could again be in requisition. In 1648, 
 his brethren unexpectedly elevated him to the platform by choosing him the Secretary of the 
 Conference. 
 
 + Doctor Beaumont may always be seen in Conference occupying a side seat. It is under- 
 stood that he talces this disadvantageous position because the platform is known to be an obser- 
 yalorj', and he does not choose to have evej-y look and expression of countenance scanned and 
 interpreted by the favoured brethi-en. 
 
75 
 
 of face with which they receive platform remarks, and the votes they 
 give, all of which have an influence in the packed Committees, either for 
 or against them. The weasel eye is always upon them from that height: 
 place it on the floor of the house, and freedom will be enjoyed. Only 
 the last Conference, on Mr, W. Grriffith mantaining his non approving 
 position of a vote put from the chair. Doctor Bunting perceiving him 
 from the Observatory, shouted out, — ' Come, William Griffith, stand up 
 like a man, and shew your approval of the resolution.' To attempt to 
 coerce a man into a measure by public exposure suits one of the pur- 
 poses for which the platform was erected." — Fly Sheets, No. 3, p. 8. 
 
 Though every one of these twenty-one objections against a Conference 
 platform has not overwhelming weight, and though some may think that 
 too much is made by the writers, of this arrangement in Conference 
 proceedings, yet much more can be said against having a platform than 
 can be said in favour of one. Can a single argument be furnished in 
 support of this unsightly, and, in many respects, inconvenient apparatus? 
 If the speaker of the House of Commons, and the ministers of the 
 country have no need of one ; if the General Assembly of the Church 
 of Scotland, and of the Free Church, can transact their ecclesiastical 
 business without one ; if the several Dissenting Associations, in their 
 annual or half yearly meetings, have never found any inconvenience from 
 the absence of this apparatus audits '' furniture, animate and inanimate ;" 
 why should one be necessary in the Methodist Conference, whose assem- 
 blies are not more numerous ? Why should one be persisted in when 
 no less than twenty-one objections, some of them very weighty ones, are 
 urged against its continuance? No one can doubt that the perennial 
 elevation of some twenty men on a platform has a tendency to give them 
 an influence which otherwise they would not have ; may lead them to 
 entertain, especially when they are not senior men, undue notions of their 
 own importance ; gives them opportunities, much more favourable than 
 are enjoyed by their brethren on the floor, for addressing the Conference; 
 and makes it a more difficult affair for modest and timid men, especially 
 if they have not stentorian voices, to speak fully their sentiments in oppo- 
 sition to the entire weight of the platform. The brethren are equal, 
 save as age, experience, talent, usefulness, piety, make a difference. 
 They ought to appear what they are— brethren, fellow-presbyters. Let 
 the President, and if it pleased, the Secretary, have a seat so placed that 
 the former may have a full view of the assembly over which he prcsi.lcs ; 
 and let the brethren, even after having filled the high office of President 
 
76 
 
 of the Conference, resume the seat which their years give them on the 
 floor of the house, like the Moderator of the General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland, who, after the expiration of his official existence, 
 takes his accustomed place as one of the brotherhood. This will give 
 dignity to the chair. This will give liberty to the Conference. 
 
 VII. CoNNEXiONAL COMMITTEES. " Part of Doctor Bunting's 
 policy has been to constitute as many committees, connexional and other- 
 wise, as possible ; and in these to transact the vital part of the business 
 of Conference ; bringing in merely a report of the general proceedings 
 of the Committee for its sanction...... The grand argument in favour of 
 
 them is, that of expediting the business of Conference, and preserving 
 its affairs distinct. There is validity in this : but, with these advantages, 
 it is necessary to guard against abuse ; and we contend, that business 
 
 will be dispatched with equal ease and rapidity by a change of hands 
 
 The committees furnish a man, who secures a seat in all he wishes to 
 enter, with an undue influence over his brethren. They (the committees) 
 may be employed for party purposes. 
 
 For some time a Nomination Committee, composed of the ex- Presidents, 
 Missionary Secretaries, the Treasurers and Clerks of the Funds, &c., 
 has had the work confided to it, of proposing members for the Con- 
 nexional Committees. This was a deep scheme ; threw an amazing 
 
 amount of power into (one man's) hands In this way have the 
 
 brethren been juggled out of their privileges and liberties, — piece after 
 piece, — stealthily and hooded over with plausible pretexts, and without 
 being aware of their position till the ground was removed from beneath 
 them. 
 
 These men have been in the modest and disinterested habit of nomina- 
 ting each other, and of adding to their number uiien like-minded with 
 themselves. The farce is also played (we can scarcely call it any thing 
 else) of finding unanimously, that there were reasons for another six 
 years' election. This deserves a careful consideration. 
 
 As the men who compose this Nomination Committee have been in the 
 habit of manifesting their partialities, by electing their own clique, as 
 pointed out in the Table of our last, ' Fly Sheet,' p. 4, so when an inde- 
 pendent man has given utterance to an opinion adverse to the clique, he 
 has been struck off the lists, and has been seen no more for years. 
 S. D. Waddy was put on the Book-Committee at the Conference of 
 1837 : at the following Conference, in the Book-Committee, he spoke at 
 
77 
 
 some length on the desirableness of revising and amending some of our 
 formularies, especially the abridgement of the Common Prayer, Mils- 
 called Mr. Wesley's, when Doctor Bunting gave him a severe castigation. 
 His name appeared no more on the committee for the next seven years ! 
 Cases of this kind would rarely occur in popular elections, as the brethren 
 would love a man the more for his independence. 
 Packed Committees engender many evils. 
 
 1 . They confine the knowledge of the Connexion to a few who allow 
 only the mere surface workings of the system to escape. 
 
 2. They furnish a man like Doctor Bunting with an undue degree 
 of influence, prejudical to the comforts of the brethren, as well as pro- 
 mote party feelings and party purposes. 
 
 3. It is in them that men are marked and go branded through the 
 Connexion for years. So it has been with Burdsall, Bromley, Beau- 
 mont, Everett, Galland, Dunn, Fowler, Stanley, Rowland, \V. Griffith, 
 Tarr, &c., &c. 
 
 4. They are employed for the baser purposes of furnishing pecuniary 
 help to men who have no claim upon the body, beyond that of relation- 
 ship to some of the members. Thus Doctor Bunting's son-in-law has 
 been helped to a salary of £200. per annum, exclusive of travelling 
 expenses ; while the Rev. S. Jackson, who has done more for the cause 
 of education than the whole of them put together, has been thrown into 
 the back-ground, and been left to struggle alone.... 
 
 Conference has very little to do in choosing a man for any official 
 station. For example, it will probably come to pass, — though we appre- 
 hend not very soon, if the wishes of the present occupants are to decide 
 the time, — that it may be necessary to seek a successor, we will say, to 
 one of the Missionary Secretaries. Will Conference originate the choice 
 of such an official ? Nothing of the kind ! A proposal will come before 
 them, as the earnest recommendation of a Committee, partly consisting of 
 
 laymen ; and these, as is notorious, m)t elected with any impartiality 
 
 Can any unbiassed opinion be expected after this ? We have only to go 
 on in the same direction a little while longer, and it will be too late to 
 lament that the proper and legitimate freedom of the Conference is gone 
 for ever. It will have become what the French Parliament was, under 
 the old regime^ — an assembly for registering decrees already made to 
 their hands, and which they had no real power to question or resist 
 
 The self-complacent arrogance of some of these committee-men is 
 truly wonderful A resolution, previously in close conclave concocted, 
 
78 
 
 is moved, seconded, and supported in open Conference, by three of the 
 select cabal. After a speech or two from others of the same conclave, 
 some unlucky brother "below the bar of the house," arises to shew 
 reasons per contra. He is immediately marked by the privileged few as 
 " a disaffected man," " an opposer of the Conference," and the brand of 
 reprobation is forthwith fixed on him ; and the brethren appear, with 
 meek resignation, quietly to admit the justice of the condemnation. So 
 general, indeed, has the disposition become to put '' The Committee " 
 in the place of " The Conference," and to consider the opposers of 
 the one as hostile to the other, that we have known men, in other respects 
 high-minded and liberal, who have privately remonstrated with the 
 refractory brother after the following fashion: — "My dear brother, if 
 you had nothing better to propose, why place yourself in an attitude of 
 hostility against The Conference!" By " The Conference," reader, 
 you are to understand, not The Brethren, in their collective capacity 
 assembled, but the proposer and seconder, and supporter of the aforesaid 
 resolution, with the two or three orators who spoke in its defence-. Thus 
 have the brethren surrendered the power of legislation into the hands of 
 
 a few self-elected individuals It would be wiser and more dignified 
 
 for them to remain at home, rather than countenance by their presence 
 the annual farce got up for the special glorification of Bunting and Co., 
 and the lay-lords whom he delights to honour. 
 
 We have shewn that the various Connexional Committees have been 
 formed on the most manifest partiality and exclusiveness. The same 
 names occur everlastingly on the numerous committees. It would seem 
 as though there was an awful paucity of men of ability and character in 
 the Connexion. Take away some five and twenty preachers, and the 
 inference from the names on our committees is, that the rest of the body 
 consists of mere ciphers, not to be trusted in any degree with the man- 
 agement of our concerns. These are the men, and wisdom will die with 
 them. Pity, for the Connexion's sake, that we cannot procure for them 
 an elixer of immortality. When these permanent fathers of the body 
 remove, what desolate orphans we shall be ! The prospects of the Con- 
 nexion are awful, if these men may not live, if not for ever, for ages !" 
 —Fly Sheets, No. 1 , p. 23 ; No. 2, p.p. 19—22 ; No. 3, p.p. 33, 34 ; 
 No. 4, p.p. 6, 7. 
 
 " When Mr. S. Dunn appealed to the London Conference of 1842, 
 in vindication of his character, because of some disturbance in the Dudley 
 circuit, the clique, who were prejudiced against him, would not allow the 
 
79 
 
 affair to come before Conference, but delivered him over to a Committee, 
 which was equal to placing him under the ' Usher of the Black Rod.' 
 Mr. Dunn very properly refused, and demanded an open trial ; but the 
 platform over-ruled it ; and the consequence was, he left the Conference 
 in disgust : and yet, at a subsequent Conference, after denying him jus- 
 tice, Doctor Bunting had the hardihood to tell him, that he ought rather 
 to ask pardon of the Conference, than to speak on the subject in ques- 
 tion ; — one of his customary brow-beating ways of answering an argu- 
 ment. Now the point with us is not whether Mr. Dunn was right or 
 wrong in the Dudley case, but the injustice of refusing a man the right 
 of vindicating himself; for we contend, that every member of the Con- 
 ference, that wishes it, has the right of public appeal If they wish to 
 
 promote any party purposes Doctor Bunting is heard to bawl out, 
 
 ' The Conference must defend and support its own Committees ! ' This 
 is generally a closer — not an argument — as the Conference by this trick 
 is put upon its dignity." — Fly Sheets, No. 1, p.p. 23, 24. 
 
 " On the appointment of the Nomination Committee, the President, 
 (Mr. Atherton,) said, ' that it was not wise to put the same men on so 
 many committees,' while other men equally fit to be on committees, were 
 not placed on any. So much for our table in No. I ; which the Presi- 
 dent must have felt in days gone by ; having, as a whig, been as great a 
 stranger to the select committees of the tory party, as some of the breth- 
 ren noticed in the list. On Doctor Beaumont objecting to Mr. Scott 
 having so many offices as to render a curate necessary^ Doctor Bunting 
 insisted on his continuance, because ' he knew all the ins and outs of the 
 business ;' — the old argument employed for himself and his colleagues. 
 Keep them in office, and you keep others out of knowledge. 
 
 We could add many instances to our specimen table in No. 1. Take 
 the case of the celebrated Charles Prest, who, with Mr. Jobson, has 
 been taken under the wing of the great ' Station Master.' We find the 
 former, for the present year, 1846, holding the following posts of 
 honour: — 1. Member of the Committee for guarding our Privileges. 
 2. Secretary of the same Committee. 3. On the Special Committee 
 for cases of exigency. 4. On the Missionary deputation. 5. On the 
 School Committee. 6. Treasurer of the Schools. 7. On the Com- 
 mittee for the removal of Kingswood School. 8. On the Book Com- 
 mittee. 9. On the Chapel and Education Fund Committee. 10. On 
 the Theological Institution. 11. On the Education Committee. 12. On 
 the Matrimonial Committee. 1 3. Superintendent of one of the Lon- 
 
80 
 
 don circuits. So much for a boy, comparatively speaking, who has 
 travelled only sixteen years ! We ask, is there either wisdom in this, as 
 to the youth himself, or fairness to others ? We may place in opposition 
 to this, Mr. George Steward disgracefully hunted out of London for 
 exposing sin. Why is W. P. Burgess omitted ? Has he sinned beyond 
 redemption in the publication of his hymnology, in connexion with his 
 vindication of it ? What has John Knowles done? He is a man of 
 vigorous mind, and is now in the fiftieth year of his itinerancy, and has 
 been uniformly kept from all committees. The only sin of which he has 
 been guilty, that has come to our knowledge, is, that like Mr. Everett, 
 who has shared the same fate, he was an admirer of Doctor Clarke. 
 What has John Burton done ? — a man that has laboured and suffered in 
 the Missionary cause — has travelled upwards of twenty years — and has an 
 intellect of superior order, as well as modesty and character to beautify 
 it ? He, alas, is another who has not rendered voluntary homage to the 
 ' great image,' — the giver of places, preferments, and pensions, — and 
 must,, therefore, be kept in the back-ground. We presume Mr. Prest's 
 case will next have to be met with an additional curate. Brethren, 
 beware I A boy of sixteen years standing, loaded with thirteen Con- 
 nexional honours! ! " — Fly Sheets, No. 3, p. 11, 12. 
 
 " It was found that the Book Committee had neglected to prepare a 
 form for the solemnization of marriage in our chapels. Doctor Bunting 
 stated that they had not time : on which Mr. Osborn said, the London 
 committees had too much to do, and asked why they could not be trusted 
 with a committee in the country ? Doctor Bunting here took the alarm, 
 lest any of the appendages of power and state should be removed from 
 his presence ; while Scott said, that in London they could get the best 
 legal advice ! But what has legal advice to do with many of the Com- 
 mittees ? Why should work be delayed when other hands are ready to 
 do it, as well as able ? If there were not equal legal advice to be obtained 
 in the country, two or three Queen's heads would settle the difference. 
 
 We have no law prohibiting supernumeraries being members of our 
 Committee of Privileges, Missions, Schools, Book Affairs and other 
 
 Connexional ones Of late it has been the policy of those who have 
 
 grasped at power, to retain some of the supernumerary brethren, who 
 have been favourable to their measures, on most of our Connexional 
 Committees, to the total exclusion of the rest. This we cannot but 
 consider a piece of fulsome flattery, not to say vile partiality, to the few, 
 as well as glaring injustice to the great body of supernumeraries. We 
 
81 
 
 can see some reason in paying this honour to Mr. Reece, who has been 
 
 longer in the work than any other man among us Was the Hke honour 
 
 paid to Mr. H, Moore, who was his senior by eight years ? Or to Mr. 
 Highfield, his senior by two years ? Or to Messrs. Reynolds and Sut- 
 cliffe, his seniors by one year ? O, no ! And what reason can there be 
 for retaining Mr. G. Marsden on nearly all our Committees, since he be- 
 came a supernumerary, while Messrs. Kershaw and Shelmerdine, his 
 seniors by two years, and Mr. R. Smith, his senior by one year, are on 
 none ? And why should Mr. France be kept on any of them, while 
 Messrs. Burdsall, Collier, Turton, and others, his seniors, and Messrs. 
 Blackett, Everett, Bicknell, and others, but httle his juniors, are on 
 none ? Is it said that Messrs. Reece and Marsden have filled the Presi- 
 dential chair ? So had Henry Moore. Or, that they were our repre- 
 sentatives to the American Conference ? " Was not that itself sufficient 
 honour for the service they rendered to the body ? Or, that they have 
 served the Connexion with acceptance, fidelity, and efficiency ? And 
 have not many other supernumeraries served the Connexion with equal 
 fidelity, acceptance, and effect ? We say, Yes! We therefore think it 
 preposterous that Mr. Marsden should be on the Missionary Deputation 
 and on eight committees, Mr. Reece on seven committees, and Mr. 
 France on two, while so many of their brethren, some of whom are 
 their seniors, and most of whom are quite as competent to serve the 
 Connexion, are not on any. This favouritism neither shews love for the 
 welfare of the body, nor yet for the brethren at large." — Fly Sheets, 
 No. 3, p.p. 26,27. 
 
 " The Missionary Deputation has been made the instrument of par- 
 tiality and favouritism. This department is known to be generally in the 
 hands of one of the general Missionary Secretaries, who is himself in 
 the hand of Doctor Bunting. If Doctor Bunting does not name every 
 man, his colleagues know his men, whether under the brand or in his 
 smiles ; and then adding a few others the list is made up.* Hence, men 
 are found on these deputation lists, not at all remarkable for platform 
 effect ; and found there, too, for a series of years ; while such men as 
 
 * The Fly Sheets have ah-cady told on some points : among others on the deputation lists, on 
 which, since the publication of the "Sheets," the names of Messrs. Bromley, S.Dunn, and 
 Kay, have been introduced. 
 
 " The Missionary Secretaries had actually put ' the whole statl" ' belonging to the hondon tirst 
 circuit, upon the deputation. Doctor Alder, wlio, whh this fact before him, disclflimed^all de- 
 sign to monopolize, reminded Mr. Lomas of the help which his circuit received from ottici'al men 
 resident in London. ' Aye, aye,' replied Mr. Lomas, who was alive to the ministerial soniceB of 
 
82 
 
 Mr. Bromley, not to say returned Missionaries, are calvinistically ' passed 
 by;' shewing less anxiety how they may best serve the funds, than how 
 to display their antipathies and their partialities. But the people are 
 rising up against this plan : we hear of districts and circuits refusing the 
 men thus palmed upon them. In this we sincerely rejoice." 
 
 " In the number of the Wesleyan for June 22, 1848, there is a striking 
 tabular view of the Missionary Deputation, shewing a reckless want of 
 economy^ and the most glaring partiality in the appointments: 17 men, 
 in the course of six years, being appointed on deputations twice; 9, 
 thrice; 1 5 , four times ; 15, _^ye times ; 31, i^a: times. It appears also, 
 that, in ]8'i7, thirty-tivo men were destined to travel 16,050 miles, on 
 their several deputations, exclusive of their journeying to and from the 
 respective districts ; and the whole deputation, comprising 78 preachers, 
 had to travel a distance that would have much more than compassed the 
 earth. In most instances, better and more effective men, systematically 
 excluded from these deputations, might have been found ; averaging not 
 a twentieth part of the distance, and at a comparatively trifling expense. 
 We hope our readers will advert to the the Table,* in support of the fact 
 — That we do not complain without reason." — Fly Sheets, No. 1, p.p. 
 27, 28 ; No. 4, p. 6. 
 
 "■ March, 1846, a special Committee of Finance met in London, agree- 
 ably to the Minutes of the previous Conference, and yet nothing was 
 allowed to be published, respecting the decisions of this meeting, so im- 
 portant to the Connexion ; a circular was only directed to the chairmen 
 of districts, to let out just as much as the preachers should be entrusted 
 with ! Poor dear men ! they cannot keep secrets, and it is only fit that 
 the committees should constitute the cabinets in which their knowledge is 
 to be preserved. The keys are kept by Doctor Bunting." — Fly Sheets, 
 No. 2, p. 18. 
 
 " A word more on the stationing of preachers. No two men have 
 done more mischief in the Stationing Committee to the character, use- 
 fulness, and comforts of their brethren, than Doctors Bunting and New- 
 ton ; the one by his arbitrary conduct, prejudices, and pre-possessions ; 
 
 these secularized and sluggish men, ' there are two sides to that question.' The whole five men 
 were, notwithstanding the remonstrance, placed upon the deputation list." — F. S„ No. 3, p. 12. 
 
 Is there such a paucity of talent in the Wesleyan ministry that a deputation list cannot be 
 efficiently completed in any one year, unless the whole ministerial staff be taken from an im- 
 portant circuit ? The idea is preposterous : the conclusion is, the existence of partyism and 
 fevouritism. 
 
 * See (Table, No. 2,) Appendix. 
 
83 
 
 and the other by scraping up all the tittle-tattle, all the hearsay and one- 
 sided stories he meets on his way through the Connexion. They both 
 have free scope in the committees ; and, as the non-favourites turn up, 
 
 they are marked Direct opposition is an unpardonable offence, and is 
 
 visited from year to year, as in the case of Bromley, with continued 
 humiliations. If the man happens to be popular, and sought for by 
 better circuits, it will be insinuated in committee, that he is not fit for 
 the situation — not to be trusted — or not deserving of it — that he is a 
 colleague not to be desired : and should any of the lay lords, who wish 
 to be considered the representatives of our first-rate circuits, consult him 
 for his opinion, he can easily, as he has often been known to do, give a 
 mad dog a blow on the head. And well would it be, if there were no 
 other preachers in the connexion under the influence of the same spirit 
 and principles. We have his minions — John Scott and others, who can, 
 and do, as in the case of Messrs. W. Tarr and W. Griffiith, carry out 
 his insinuations against those whom he has branded. It is only of later 
 years that Doctor Newton has exercised in his wanderings an inquisitorial 
 
 espionage over independent and marked men All this under- working, 
 
 counter-working, is to be devoutly laid at the door of piety, and every 
 
 man is to consider his appointment providential ! Did the apostles and 
 
 first christian ministers, when they differed in opinion, undermine, sup- 
 plant, and pursue each other with malignant feeling? Did Paul watch 
 the appointment of Barnabas and Peter, whom he had to withstand to 
 the face ? Did he attempt to cramp their energies, lessen their respecta- 
 bility, or curtail their influence? Did he, Bunting-like, mark them from 
 year to year ? For a man to be pursued from year to year, like Brom- 
 ley, Dunn, and others, deserves no milder name than that of persecution. 
 It fosters the worst feelings against these excellent men, and is a sin 
 against the church of God, in diminishing their usefulness, by lowering 
 
 the standard of their ministerial character Did the first and best 
 
 Methodist preachers thus worry and destroy each other ? Such conduct 
 is reserved for the present improved and very perfect state of Methodism 
 under the administration of Doctor Bunting. This lovely state of things 
 exhibits to the very life the blessed tendency of Methodism made per- 
 fect by the ' master mind ' of Doctor Bunting and his adherents,— the 
 methodism as it is, of the ' mender of systems.' When a man does not 
 coincide with his views... he must be sent to certain circuits — not those 
 for which he is fitted— not because there are no other circuits urging his 
 appointment to them — not to promote the work of God — not because 
 
84 
 
 there is the slightest impression that the Head of the Church designs him 
 for that special field of labour — not that the circuit belongs to a class 
 that at all harmonizes with his age, talents, or character — but by way of 
 PUNISHMENT ! — not for an oflPence against either God or his Church — but 
 
 because he is not the beloved of brother What a motive — what a 
 
 feeling — what an object to be associated with a minister of Christ in his 
 
 appointment to a circuit! If the men had not more of God about 
 
 them than their persecutors, girdmg them with patient endurance, they 
 would bid farewell to the Methodism they love. Is this the way to make 
 talent, and character, and usefulness, go as far as they are capable in the 
 body ? Are men to be appointed to the work of God out of vengeance^ 
 rather than from views oi fitness? Is this the way in which the gifts of 
 God to his ministers are to be employed to the best advantage, and to 
 effect the greatest amount of good ? Is this the way to treat those whom 
 God has called to the work of the ministry, and whom he has fitted for 
 the higher, if not the highest posts and offices in his church ; men whose 
 morals are unirapeached — whose piety is unsuspected — whose usefulness 
 is undeniable — and whose talents are superior to several of those that 
 move in the Buntingian wake? If this is ' Methodism as it is,' the 
 Lord, in mercy, bring us back to Methodism as it was! 
 
 The Stationing Committee deserves the appellation we have given it, 
 — 'The Slaughter-House of Ministerial Character:' where 
 character is assassinated, and years elapse before the man knows that the 
 bowie knife has been plunged into it. Whatever misgivings some per- 
 sons might have of the lawfulness of the Fly Sheet system, no such mis- 
 givings can harrass the judgment of men, who, in the Stationing Com- 
 mittee, have done their brethren the most cruel wrong, and have not only 
 kept themselves under cover, but have taken good care that it should not 
 be known to the injured party, what insidious and vile efforts have been 
 employed against them." — Fly Sheets, No. 3, p.p. 2, 3 ; No. 4, p. 10. 
 
 " A striking instance occurred last Conference. A sub-committee 
 on cheap publications was appointed to act during the year. Doctor 
 Bunting quietly wrote a list of the committee and handed it to the 
 President. Doctor Beaumont proposed that Mr. Dunn should be on 
 the Committee, he having acknowledgedly fit qualifications for that de- 
 partment. But the sturdy Cornishman is no pet of the Great King, 
 who immediately opposed it, saying, that it was the President's place to 
 nominate. Beaumont immediately floored him by saying, that if it were, 
 it was the Conference's act to appoint, and he still proposed Mr. Dunn. 
 
85 
 
 Bunting, who is never at a loss to find a reason for excluding whom he 
 reprobates, changed his tack, saying, ' It is not well to take persons from 
 such a distance, because of the expense!' Note. 1. Bunting was the 
 nominator ; the President being only, in this instance, his organ. 2. 
 Vevers, Osborn, and others at a greater distance from the place of 
 meeting, were not objected to, though the expense would be greater in 
 
 each of these cases These committees form a kind of circumvalla- 
 
 TioN round the Conference ; not only transacting its business, in the way 
 of ordering^ disposing^ and appointing, but absolutely intimidating and 
 preventing men from approaching Conference with their requests and 
 grievances. The Conference, as such, is a mere name. The whole of 
 its important business is transacted by the nominees in the different Com- 
 mittees. The grand work of the clique is to propose and help each 
 other into circuits, and into office^ and to keep each other in them as long 
 as law will allow, and beyond the time common decency will admit. 
 Since last Conference, some closet-conversation escaped from the place 
 in which it was uttered, respecting an attempt to force Mr. Scott upon 
 Queen-Street ; the leading-men of the circuit expressed their dissent. 
 What was Doctor Bunting's reply on hearing of this opposition ? 'If 
 Mr. Scott cannot be kept in London, I will leave it.' What a calamity I 
 
 But look at the self-conceit of the threat, and the aid lent to each 
 
 by each, in giving permanency to office ! " — Fly Sheets, No. 4, p.p. 6, 7. 
 " In the education Committee Doctor Banting catechised Mr. S. 
 Jackson ; wishing to know whether he had given up his opposition to the 
 Government scheme of Education. It was contended that such interro- 
 gatories were quite out of order. He replied, ' I shall have many ques- 
 tions to ask before Conference is over. You shall have no more bush- 
 fighting. / will make you honest men.' A valorous declaration this 
 from one who for years has been a bush-fighter ; who has managed by 
 his Committees to keep up a deadly system of attack upon men whose 
 only fault has been that they will not be an addition to his conglomerate 
 mass of party association. Where, we ask, is there more ' bush-fighting' 
 against the interests of the mamj, and for the benefit of the few^ than in 
 Committees, nominated by the elect, — if not precious ? Where, we ask, 
 is there more dreadful ' bush -fighting ' against character, comfort, and 
 usefulness, and for place and power, than in that slaughter-house of 
 
 ministerial character and peace, — the Stationing Committee? And 
 
 who has been captain of the bush-rangers ? It is but little that oozes out 
 of this prison-house ; but that little fixes the leadership of bush-fighting 
 
86 
 
 on him, who, forsooth, will have no more of it ! Is he tired of it ? Or 
 does he disrelish it, now it is employed against himself? Heartily do we 
 wish he had never been a practised hand at it. But we are not going 
 to give it up because it happens just now to be offensive and annoying to 
 a party, who, for years, has maintained its position by its use. 
 
 '' It is often said that when Doctor Bunting goes, a great change will 
 take place in the administration of Methodism — Alder, Beecham, and 
 Co., will hardly have time to pack up their traps. Why postpone 
 changes till then, found to be now needful ? When we hear this said, we 
 are reminded of the severe reproach Demosthenes gave the Athenians, 
 rejoicing at the news of the sickness of the king of Macedon — " His 
 sickness or death, of what importance to you? Should any accident 
 happen to this Philip, you yourselves would instantly create another. 
 For not so much by his own proper strength, has he risen to this exceed- 
 ing greatness, as by your indolence."— Fly Sheets, No. 4, p.p. 16, 17, 12. 
 
 " The Nomination Committee is a mere instrument in the hands (of 
 the clique) for carrying their principles out in every department of 
 Methodism. By its means ' the Station Master ' has his men every where : 
 so that where he cannot himself be, and see with his own eyes, he can 
 exert his own influence and carry on his own plans. He thus is every 
 where ; and appears a compound never contemplated even in fable, uniting 
 in one, the ideal character of a Briareus with 50 heads and 100 arms, 
 and of an Argus with 100 eyes, only two of which were closed at once ; 
 by this monster union forming the heau ideal of a detective force in a 
 police establishment We have given a name to the Stationing Com- 
 mittee which will live. We venture to honour the Nomination Com- 
 mittee in the same way, as — The Rotten Borough of Methodism, in 
 which the nominees of a lordly clique are to be found, — appointing other 
 Committees agreeable to the mind and will of the Dictator ; the whole 
 of which rule the Conferential Parliament. 
 
 A Nomination Committee can only be required for one of the three 
 following reasons : — 
 
 1 . That the fittest persons to fill office seldom attend Conference. 
 
 2. That the Conference has too much work on its hands to allow 
 time to make a suitable selection ; or, 
 
 3. That men are to be secured for party purposes, and to carry out 
 those purposes to the satisfaction of the ruling party. 
 
 Now the first of these reasons cannot be alleged. As to the last, no 
 one would have recourse to it for very shame. It can only be, therefore, 
 
87 
 
 on the second of these grounds that any one could attempt to justify this 
 anomolous thing — a committee to make committees. But the second rea- 
 son is as weak and worthless as the others. There is no more need to 
 occupy the time of Conference in discussion, in the act of choosing men 
 for our various Commitees, than there is in choosing either the President 
 
 or the Secretary A standing committee of nomination, we cannot hut 
 
 look upon as a reflection on the judgment and purity of the Conference, 
 — operating as a blight and a pestilence on the prosperity of the work at 
 large."— Fly Sheets, No. 3, p. 35 ; No. 4, p. 10. 
 
 The extracts now given from the Fly Sheets, on the construction and 
 working of the Connexional Committees, are large, and occupy a con- 
 siderable space in the present publication ; but the Wesleyan reader who 
 wishes to know what are the contents of the Fly Sheets, and who is 
 anxious to ascertain with what view these obnoxious articles have been 
 published, will probably not consider them too lengthy or too numerous. 
 The Wesleyan public will probably be glad to learn from The Watch- 
 man, or any other organ which the assailed party has under its control, 
 what reply can be given to the statements just laid before the reader. 
 Surely it is an anomaly to have a standing committee to nominate all 
 connexional committess. There cannot be conceived an easier way for 
 men to play into each others' hands ; and if, as alleged, there is a dispo- 
 sition to pack the committees, and to exclude certain preachers from 
 committees, an opportunity is thus afforded in the most effective way 
 imaginable. It is hardly to be supposed that they will exclude themselves, 
 each other, their own friends, their partizans ; (if any thing of party 
 spirit at any time exists in the body ;) and hence, it can no longer strike 
 one with surprise that, in looking over the Connexional Committees, 
 " the same names everlastingly occur." This may be inevitable — 
 necessary — desirable ; but, for the satisfaction of the body, and that no 
 suspicions may be fairly awakened as to the object with which this 
 anomaly is created, the point deserves to be argued and demonstrated. 
 Mr. Vevers would do a distinguished act if he would accomplish this. 
 This done, the brethren might then, whh necessary resignation, see th.-ir 
 power of appointing their committees almost annihilated ; and might, by 
 virtue of necessity, acquiesce in the arrangement that devolves so large a 
 share of the power of Conference in the hands of one small permanent 
 body. 
 
 Nor will this suffice. The Fly Sheets declare that the Connexional 
 Committees are packed ones— that they consist for the most part of party 
 
88 
 
 men ; the same men appearing again and again on various committees, 
 to the habitual and studied exclusion of others as eligible as most who 
 are thus loaded with duties and honours — that this creates a party spirit 
 among those who are in office, who stand by and support each other, 
 thus engendering all the evils of party spirit in a body whose members 
 should be emphatically one, loving as brethren — that it acts discreditably 
 to us in the opinions to which it naturally leads, viz., that the number of 
 ministers in the body, capable of acting in the administration of its affairs 
 is very small — that a want of impartiality and brotherly love exists in 
 those who, having the administration of affairs in their hands, are too 
 selfish and gi*asping, or impolitic and short-sighted, to introduce into 
 office others who are not less qualified than themselves, or some, at least, 
 of their colleagues. In the Fly Sheets it is also argued, that these 
 packed committees give undue influence to the persons systematically upon 
 them ; and detract from the due influence of those who are systematically 
 excluded from them ; the one walking in an artificial glare, the other 
 bearing an undeserved brand as though they were disqualified to act side 
 by side with their brethren — that the Connexion thus loses the full 
 benefit of the varied, if not the highest talent, which it possesses — 
 that the opinion, if not vindicated, is suggested that the preachers 
 are disposed of, not so much from a persuasion that the lot respectively 
 assigned them is the most fitting, but that which a spirit of dictation 
 and absolutism selects for them — that men may be thus continued in 
 office from year to year when a majority of the brethren, had they 
 unfettered opportunity of expressing their opinion, is more than 
 doubtful of the propriety of their continued appointment — that the 
 Conference itself is thus denuded of much of its legitimate power, becom- 
 ing rather a court for registering decrees already past than a supreme 
 legislative assembly, the source and fountain of legislation. The Fly 
 Sheets also enquire whether this phase of modern Methodism agrees 
 either with the spirit of Methodism as it was, or with the spirit of 
 Christianity as illustrated in the generosity, largeness of soul, disinterest- 
 edness, and thoroughly brotherly feeling of the Ancient Church in its 
 purest and simplest condition ? Silence M'ili be no satisfactory argument: 
 it may suggest weakness. Sneers, and ridicule, and irony, and that 
 argumentum ad hominem which replies, that the men who agitate these 
 questions, are themselves ambitious of office, and it would be desirable 
 to see how they would fill it, or only apprehensions are to be entertained 
 if such men were got into power, will be deemed no reply : these may 
 
89 
 
 suggest the idea of the evasion of a great difficulty. Test Acts, numer- 
 ously signed " declarations," flattering and highly eulogistic resolutions, 
 prior to investigation, refutation, demonstration, are no apology and offer 
 no defence, and give no reply to these allegations which if true are most 
 serious, and if false, cannot be of so little moment — for it cannot be 
 questioned that much interest is awakened on these subjects — that it is 
 not worth while for any official to give a distinct, and full, and argument- 
 ative refutation to the alleged constitution, and the alleged evils that arise 
 from this constitution of our Connexional Committees. At first view they 
 certainly have an aspect unfavourable to the liberties of the preachers, to 
 the dignity of the Conference, to the harmonious working of our system, 
 to the securing of the blessing of Him who requires all things to be done 
 in His Church, not only without hypocrisy but also, without partiality. 
 There may be as much, even more, to be said on the other side. Let it 
 be heard. Let the ancients speak. Let the pens of ready writers on 
 their side be called forth. " The law is open, and there are deputies : 
 let them implead one another." 
 
 VIII. The Curacy System. The term explains itself. Curates 
 do the chief part of parochial duties, while their incumbents can devote 
 what time they please to occupations that are not the prime duties of 
 christian pastors. The term, as applied to Wesleyan Ministers, appears 
 to mean, that certain preachers are allowed an assistant minister in order 
 that they may be relieved from a very considerable proportion of the 
 duties, which hitherto have been deemed foremost and of prime im- 
 portance, when a christian man has been, in obedience to a divine call, 
 brought out into the Methodist ministry. It is a novel feature in 
 Methodism : it belongs to Methodism as it is under the plastic powers of 
 the " master mind" of innovation, not as it was under thfe active genius 
 of its laborious founder. Wesley had his assistants : they assisted him 
 in his labour, but did not release him from it : Wesley did not preach 
 one sermon the less, because he had, at first, five or six, eventually some 
 hundred assistants. Theij were his helpers in the christian ministry : he 
 accepted gladly their services as auxiliary to his own, not as substitutionary 
 for his own. In all the duties of the pastorate he was as exemplary, 
 when his curates or assistants were much multiplied, as when, like Moses 
 before the elders were appointed, ho alone bore the burden of the work. 
 Is it so with the ministers who arc now indulged with assistants or 
 *' curates," as the Fly Sheets, perhaps, not most happily, have designated 
 
 G 
 
90 
 
 them ? Let their opinions be stated and their reasons be weighed. "The 
 Curate System is increasing among us. The President has one, to which 
 we entertain no objection. But we decidedly object to Doctor Newton 
 being indulged in this way, for reasons stated in our second edition of 
 No. 1 ;* and we also object to Messrs. Young, Pengelly, and Waddy 
 having each a man. Our opposition does not lie against the men, but 
 against the principle, and against the reason assigned to establish it. 
 The reason assigned in the case of Mr. Young, is, that of enabling him, 
 as chairman, to visit the Cornish District. For a stated supply there 
 ought to be perpetua,} visiting. But if one chairman is to be thus elevated 
 and indulged, why not every chairman ? We see part of the Bishop-plan 
 peeping out, .after which some of our tory churchites have been so long 
 and ardently pining ; — the bishop visiting his diocese ! Mr. Pengelly is 
 allowed one, as secretary of the School Fund. But why throw the 
 whole of the secular part on the minister of the sanctuary ? Why not 
 employ a local preacher, or other layman, to attend to the secular de- 
 partment ? Nay, why not — if he must be kept by the Connexion — place 
 Mr. Armstrong there, instead of going about the country like a gentle- 
 man ? Doing what ? If Mr. Waddy is unable to do his work, let him 
 
 retire, like other supernumeraries It vva** a wise regulation under the 
 
 Levitical economy, that the priests should retire at a certain age, and not 
 yield to the sanctuary half or imperfect service. The cause demands 
 our fullest energies. The most outrageous aspect of the curate system 
 is, to admit its increase, or even its existence, when men cannot be found 
 for the regular work — when the President has been compelled, govern- 
 ment-like, in a case of emergnncy, to invite wcrn-out supernumeraries 
 into the field ! The accumulation of offices has led to this ; and for this 
 again, we must look to the system of Location, Centralization, and 
 Secularization practised in the metropolis, as the primary cause,' — 
 and to a constant change of officers, and a division of labour, as its cure. 
 Curatks in London, where there are so many preachers in the regu- 
 lar work — supernumeraries — institutionists — officials — local preachers — 
 
 * ''■ If the reader will take the trouble to look over the Miscellaneous Expenses in the Minutes 
 for tlie last four or live years, he will find £73. 17s. 'Jd., regularly turning up in favour of Doctor 
 Newton for an assistant, while he has the best allowance in the Connexion, and is fed. on the 
 
 liuest of the wheat by the friends whose abodes he visits He is worthy, certainly of all he 
 
 receives; but so, also, are others. Why is Doctor Beaumont not indulged in this way? We 
 look at the favouritisto of the thing ; and we object to it, on the ground of justice too : the peo- 
 ple have to pay double tax. It is no hardship to Doctor N. to be on the wing : it is his meat 
 
 and drink — his very life people should pay for their own pleasiues. It was with an ill gi-ace 
 
 mat he charged Mr. Caughey with making a gain of godliness in his revivals." — F. S., No. l,p. 33. 
 
chance priestly visitors, is beyond endurance. The curates are nearly all 
 given to the supporters of Doctor Bunting : others have to go without. 
 (May they never wish to have them !) And yet, when Doctor Clarke 
 required a little aid, no one looked more sternly at it than Doctor Bun- 
 ting. There are many objections to the Curate system: 
 
 1 . It seriously affects our funds. Whence comes the support ? If 
 not from the connexional funds, still, from the circuits ; and these again 
 are cramped in their financial energies, and prevented from doing more 
 for the general work. 
 
 2. The young men are not equal to the men whose pulpits they 
 supply ; and the result is, a serious injury to the circuits. 
 
 3. Self-indulgence is encouraged in the men for whom a curate is 
 provided. When a visit of pleasure draws in another direction, when the 
 rain descends, or when the night is cold and dark, the supply w^ill be sure 
 to be on the road. 
 
 4. It reverses the order of God and of Methodism, by making the 
 christian ministry a secondary matter — having to give place to matters of 
 mere secularity, in men unnecessarily encumbered with a variety of 
 inferior offices, who, according to Doctor Bunting's string of Liverpool 
 Minutes should ' consecrate themselves fully and entirely to their proper 
 work,' — the work* of the christian ministry. 
 
 o. It destroys the apostolic spirit in men to whom the supply is 
 granted, and places them on a degrading level with Missionary Secre- 
 taries and Book- Stewards. Why not divide Charles Prest's twelve or 
 thirteen honours and offices, among twelve or thirteen of his brethren, 
 
 who are superior to himself in all things and who are unadorned 
 
 with a single laurel ?"— Fly Sheets, No. 3, p.p. 30, 31. 
 • If there be, as is asserted, such an accumulation of office, and conse- 
 quently of duties, on one man, and he, possibly, the superintendent of a 
 London circuit, that he has no time for any pastoral duties, and can only 
 be seen in the pulpit on the Sabbath-day — so that, for six days out of the 
 seven, the ministerial character lies in abeyance, a strong case, indeed, 
 must be made out to satisfy the Wesleyan public that it is right and 
 seemly, and for the spiritual interests of the body, that a race of semi- 
 ministerial, demi-secularized pluralists should spring up in the Conference. 
 Either more men must hold office, or laymen must fill some of these 
 offices. The circuit is injured, the ministerial influence of the preacher 
 is almost destroyed, when his flock sees him only on the sabbath in the 
 pulpit, and knows, that, in spite of his ministerial name and status, he 
 
93 
 
 has been plunged into, excited, worried, annoyed, by financial and secular 
 matters the whole week. This is not seemly : this cannot keep up the 
 respect which the well-sustained office of the christian ministry inspires. 
 We do not consider a local preacher to be acting at variance with his 
 vows, or inconsistently with his status in the church, because, during the 
 vt^eek, he has been diligently employed in things temporal. This rather 
 adds to the interest of his services, and gives him a stronger claim upon 
 the kindness and gratitude of his hearers, as it involves much personal 
 sacrifice, and gives inferior opportunities for effecting pulpit ministrations. 
 But there is much that is unseemly in the case of a person devoted to the 
 christian ministry, and supported by a christian church in order that he 
 may devote his fullest energies to the religious improvement of the flock, 
 occupying six-sevenths of his time, throughout the year, in cares, anxie- 
 ties, discussions, business, that are at the antipodes of preparation for the 
 pulpit, or for the pastorate. The thought must strike the audience on a 
 Sabbath morning, that the occupation of such a minister during the pre- 
 vious week has not been of the kind that belongs to the office. He has 
 not been digging deep into the golden mine of truth. He has not been 
 sitting close at the Master's feet receiving large supplies of hallowed fire, 
 and, Christ-like, feeling for souls. He has left his study, his closet, his 
 bible, his books on divinity, his holy meditations, his mental appliances 
 to secure proper ministerial furniture and energy, to sit at a desk in an 
 office, to rummage documents and statistics, that, only in an indirect 
 way, are connected with religion, and that have qualified him to act the 
 accountant, or to become the lecturer on some branch of political econo- 
 my, rather than to lead the children of God to a knowledge of the deep 
 things of God. If this were not so, the curate system must have some 
 strong argument in its favour before it will come into esteem with the 
 Wesleyan public, because the body recognises the vast importance of 
 week-day services. And will they be satisfied with the labours of a 
 preacher, who, while he receives full pay, only does a preacher's work 
 one-sixth of his time ? Full pay for one-sixth of the labour for ivhich 
 that pay is given ? Methodist preachers are not called out from their 
 circuits into the itinerancy to be financiers, inmates of business offices, 
 tenants of committee-rooms.* Quarterly meetings did not sanction their 
 
 * A writer in The "Watchman of January, 1849, under the initials of " J. TT. E,.," (Bigg ?) steps 
 foi'ward in the defence of the metropolitan seculars, but has met with an answer, in the note of 
 a correspondent in The Wesleyan Times, who obsen^es, " When J. H. E., brings forward the 
 venerable Joseph Eutwistle as iin instance of freedom from all secularization of spirit, he is 
 guiliy of unfauness; lie adduces one of the best cases, as an apology for the worst; an office 
 
98 
 
 going forth into the itinerancy for this. Circuits do not engage to sup- 
 port itinerants for this. No, no. To preach the word in season and out 
 of season ; to give himself wholly to ministerial work is the reason 
 why circuits support wholly an itinerant : and if the curacy system extend 
 much more, it will cure itself — the abscess will then burst, but the patient 
 may die. For the circuits will not, if the system extends, give full pay 
 for part work. 
 
 The curacy system is lowering the tone of ministerial character ; and 
 this is not the age in which it is desirable to reduce the public estimation 
 of the ministerial office. Will not this, however, be the case, if it be 
 seen that a minister keeps his relative position in the church, although he 
 has been as much steeped in secularities during the week, as any man of 
 business ? Will it not lower the tone of feeling and the sense of respon- 
 sibility in the rising ministry, and in candidates for the ministry, when it 
 is found, that distinguished ministers may be free from their chief duties 
 as Methodist preachers, upwards of three hundred days in the year, and 
 may be, during so large a portion of their time, pursuing the most 
 worldly callings, and in order that they may do this, assistants must be 
 provided for them ? Will it not speedily root the opinion in them, that 
 the pastor and the minister are not the most important features of the 
 Methodist preacher, but that these are only of secondary importance 
 when they can be thus laid aside ? And will this engender no evils ? 
 Will not this open the door for candidates with low views of the minis- 
 try ? but with some longings for the status, — freedom from the re- 
 sponsibilities of business, and leisure for somewhat literary and intellec- 
 tual pursuits, afforded by the ministerial office ? The curate system 
 must not be extended ; it must be curtailed : except in the case of the 
 
 thd least secularizing iu its character, as a justification of those that arc tenfold more so iu 
 their tendency ; a man in the decline of life, and out of the re{,-ular work, as a set-olf against 
 men, full of vigour, taken from their more imperative apostolic calling and labouiii ; a muJi 
 meeting a class of ' twenty-seven young men,' for spiritual purposes, as a reason why oili.as 
 should be employed in purchases, fitting out, and in the everlasting change of pounds, shilliu-'S, 
 and pence ! Whoever thought that class-meeting was of a secularizing tendency ? There are 
 those, however, who think, that a supernumerary, the Tuiors of the lusLituiion, or tlie Preachers 
 on tlie circuit, might perform this work. 'J. IT. 11.,' acts the mifair part of a corufactor who 
 brings a tolerable sample of wheat into the mai'ket as a fair specimen of grain of an inferior 
 quality; of one who points out a piece of ground, unchoked with weeds, and upon tlie wholo 
 fruitful, as a specimen of that on which it is next to impossible to get any thing suitable to 
 grow. Besides, if no one, on his shewing, can be ' too active for the importiuU position of 
 Governor,' what becomes ofa^e and injirmity} Men are to be found as accommodating iu argu- 
 ment, fts a weathercock to the wind." 
 
94 
 
 President, whose office gives him during the year many extra duties, and 
 an extensive, and often confidential correspondence, and in whose case, the 
 office being only for a year, an assistant can only be had for one year, 
 the curate system must be abolished. And though it may not be correct 
 in the Fly Sheets to represent the curates as ''hacks," yet it cannot be 
 denied that there is great danger lest the assistance thus rendered should 
 engender indolence on the part of the assisted, an avoidance of incon- 
 venient journeys and work, and an arbitrariness of manner towards the 
 young men, who, because they are given as helps, will be subject to the 
 most arbitrary appointments and arrangements that their rector may 
 choose to make. For these reasons, in all probability, the Wesleyan 
 public will be of opinion that the '' Curacy System " must be of the 
 things that do forthwith cease and determine, and that every man whose 
 name is on the Minutes as a travelling preacher, shall be accounted to 
 do, and shall be responsible for doing, the full, and daily work of a good, 
 old-fashioned Methodist-preacher.* 
 
 * Surely this is reasonable. The fact stated below is an anomaly, "\^^ly is it allowed. "Doc- 
 tor Bunting on his fourth election agreed to do without a yoimg man, assigning as a reason, that 
 he could gain what assistance he required from his son, who was not in the regular work. To 
 this may be added, that himself was not burthened with pulpit duties. As the Connexion was 
 saved the expense of a young man, the Doctor, for his great generosity, must be presented with 
 fifty pounds! This is one way of saving the Connexion! putting fifty pounds into a private 
 purse, and depriving the Connexion of the labours of a young man, to support whom tliat fifty 
 pounds would have gone neaily the full length of the way. When the Committee of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society presented Doctor Clarke with fifty pounds, he nobly refused its 
 acceptance. But hereby hangs a tale. Mr. W. Bunting, at this moment, 1846, has Ms name 
 entered in the Minutes of Conference, for the eighth London Circuit; though not one of the 
 re"ular working preachers. He had a young man in 1845, which allowed him sufiicient vacant 
 time to assist his father. Kow, the Doctor, who can preach against other anomalies, can see 
 and approve of this anomaly ;— a son on the eighth London circuit — without an in%itation to it 
 — without salai-y — entered as a regular preacher ! His having the rank of a regular preacher, 
 is not the only offence, but the pai'iiality of the thing, as well as its injustice to others, who, as 
 supernumeraries, are much more entitled to stand there than he is, whetlier on the gi'ound of 
 age, uscfidness, or piety. Where is the man (else) who would be allowed this pi-ivilege, — allowed 
 by a manoeuvre of this kind, to steal a march on the Preachers' Fund, in having a year or two 
 more added to his account, grounded on the list of his regular appointments ? Doctor Clarke 
 ■wished a year or two to be added to his itinerant life, to make up his fijitj ; but that was over- 
 ruled by the London clique. 
 
 On Mr. Reece retiring from the regular work, Doctor Bunting proposed a resolution similar 
 to that in the case of Messrs. H. Moore and J. Wood, in 1827-. This furnished him with a fine 
 oppoilunity of aiming an indirect blow at Doctor Clarke, by stating, that there was no miss- 
 nancyism about Mr. lleece ; that, having laboured 59 years, he was not disjiosed to indulge a 
 foolish vanity to attempt his COth, when he felt himself inadequate to the work; Doctor Clarke 
 having wished to complete the 50th of his itinerancy. And yet Mr. Ptcece, whom we venerate 
 both for age and character, was obliged to have help before he retned." — Fly Sheets, No. 3, 
 p 31 ; No. 2, p. . 
 
95 
 
 IX. The Core and Cure of Misrule: Vote by TJali.ot. 
 
 '* All public bodies," quoth the Fly Sheets, '' are in danger of departing:, 
 by little and little, from first principles. It is necessary to keep a most 
 vigilant eye upon the earliest symptons of deviation from the straight 
 line ; and we hope we shall not be charged with undue suspicion for 
 doing this in these papers. From such departure, insensibly creeping iu 
 amongst us, a good deal of the present uneasiness has arisen. 
 
 1. It was evidently a principle with those venerable men to whom, 
 after Mr. Wesley's death, was entrusted the settling of the constitution 
 of Methodism, that, in all cases of election to office^ — (and indeed, in all 
 instances where personal favour or feeling was likely to interfere,) — the 
 vote of the Conference should he taken by ballot. The stjlemn admoni- 
 tion of Mr. Wesley, written with his own hand, was delivered to them 
 at their first Conference after his death. It implored them ''by their 
 love to him to do nothing by prejudice or partiality ;" and it was present 
 to their minds in all their arrangements. The instances of election to 
 any office were then few. What would have been thought of abstracting 
 from the regular work of the ministry four men for Missionary Secre- 
 taries, — six for a Theological Institution, — three for the Book-Room, — 
 two for the Schools, &c., &c. ? — it is difficult to tell. But we may safely 
 infer in what way they would have been chosen, if chosen at all. At 
 that time, the elections, in which any thing of personal favour or dis- 
 approval could be manifested, were chiefly confined to the offices of 
 President and Secretary of the Conference, — Chairmen of Districts, — 
 together with the election of members into the legal Conference ; to 
 which might be added, the election of the members of the Stationing 
 Committee. 
 
 2. Now the true spirit of Wesleyanism, in respect to tliis matter, 
 raay be gathered from the fact, that, by common constMit, it was agreed 
 that all these elections ought to be by ballot ; and, by ballot — (though 
 efforts have been secretly made, again and again, to deprive the brethren 
 of their ancient liberty,) — they still remain. Usage has been suffered 
 to deviate from this primitive mode. Care has been taken that not one 
 of the numerous offices which have been so profusely created of late 
 years, should be entered upon l)y the spontaneous suffrages of the breth- 
 ren. Nomination, and a shew of hands, have been the order of the day. 
 How can anything else than distrust, and a want of confidence be the 
 result? It is not old, but modern Methodism, that is resisted, because 
 intolerable. 
 
96 
 
 3. But this is not all. The election of men to office is, at present, 
 still less in the power of Conference than it was a few years ago, when 
 less of lay-influence existed in the Committees. We wish here to ob- 
 serve, that we have no objection to the introducing of laymen on these 
 Committees. We think it very proper that the general sense of the 
 whole Connexion should be represented in them. But is it so repre- 
 sented ? Are they not generally partial and one-sided affairs ? We have 
 great doubts whether confidence, in this respect, can be restored, until 
 these lay-members, as well as the clerical portion, be fairly chosen by 
 the ballot of the whole Conference. 
 
 4. In recommending this, we are quite sure that we are ' standing 
 in the ancient ways,' and following the example of men whose prudence 
 and good sense were unquestionable. Take the following example. For 
 the purpose of drawing up the Plan of Pacification in 1795, tVie most 
 important committee, perhaps, that was ever selected by the Conference, 
 was thus chosen. The fact itself, and the reasons assigned for it, are 
 worthy of serious consideration. We give them in the very words of 
 these open-hearted and sincere men, whose honesty and integrity we 
 greatly admire. ' On the second day, we saw the necessity of appointing 
 a Committee to prepare a Plan of General Pacification ; and that the 
 Committee might be men of our own choice, in the fullest sense of the 
 word, (it will be perceived that it is the whole Conference that speaks,) 
 we resolved that they should be chosen by ballot.' — Minutes, Vol. I., 
 p. 322. 
 
 We recommend every preacher to ponder these words, till they are 
 indelibly fixed in his memory. The men are not ' men of your own 
 choice^ in the fullest sense of the words ^^ unless they are chosen by your 
 own free and unbiassed suffrages. 
 
 5. As things now are. Conference has little to do in choosing a man 
 for an official station. It will probably come to pass some of these days 
 
 that it may be necessary to seek a successor, we will say, to .one of 
 
 the Missonary Secretaries. Will the Conference originate the choice of 
 such an official ? Nothing of the kind ! A proposal will come before 
 them, as the earnest recommendation of a Committee partly consisting of 
 laymen ; and these, as is notorious, not elected with impartiality. For 
 whether we look at the men chosen, or at the men systematically excluded, 
 there is in these elections, much more to wonder at than approve. The 
 matter will come before the Conference, just as the last recommendation 
 of the kind did, with this viva voce addition : ' now that vou have lavmea 
 
97 
 
 on your committees, attention is due to their recommendation.' Can any 
 unbiassed opinion of the Conference be anticipated after this ? 
 
 We have, indeed, only to go on in the same direction, a little while 
 longer and the Conference will have become what the French parlia- 
 ment was, under the old regime^ — an assembly for registering decrees 
 already made to their hands, and which they had no real power to ques- 
 tion or resist. 
 
 6. We have already exposed the utter futility of the pretence, — 
 ' You have your remedy ; — you may hold up your hand against the 
 individual proposed.' The answer is obvious. You forget that you 
 
 have just told me that has been selected already as the most 
 
 suitable person, by a very influential and mixed committee, whose opinion 
 
 ought to have weight with me. You forget, too, that is my 
 
 personal friend. And, though I may be convinced I could find a more 
 suitable man, — though I may be convinced that to take him out of the 
 regular work would be an injury to the cause of God, and at the same 
 time to himself ; yet^ as he is my friend^ and has how set his heart on 
 being elected, you place me under strong temptation either to give a vote 
 contrary to my conscientious conviction, (which I will not do,) or to 
 be neuter; as the majority of the whole Conference of tea is on these 
 occasions. 
 
 Can any one deny that this is a state of things which ought forthwith 
 to be amended ? 
 
 7. In nothing did the wisdom of the men of 1795 more manifestly 
 appear than in their establishing mutual confidence among the brethren ; 
 and in their putting it, by means of the ballot, out of the power of any 
 man to lord it over his equals. On the other hand ; — in nothing has the 
 present mischievous state of things struck its roots so deeply, as in the 
 Conference permitting the power of control to go out of its own hands, 
 by suffering the actual government of the Connexion, in point of fact, to 
 glide imperceptibly under the power of Committees, over which it has 
 very little influence, either primarily, in their election, or subsequently, 
 in their acts and decisions. The result is that men are chosen to office, 
 — and, what is more, — men are kept in office, whom two-thirds of their 
 brethren believe to be not the most ft for the places they fill. We know 
 this will be denied in argument ; but we are as sure of it as of any pro- 
 position in Euclid. We dare the gainsayer to the PROor. Let 
 him consent to have it put to the ballot, and he will see. 
 
98 
 
 8. It will be perceived that we ardently wish to dispense with the 
 services of the Nomination Committee altogether. The brethren need 
 no such help as this committee professes to render. They can do the 
 work themselves. 
 
 9. To sum up the whole. That man will deserve well of his 
 brethren, — he will merit the grateful eulogy of generations yet unborn, 
 — that shall have courage enough to stand up nobly in his place in the 
 
 Conference, and move, ' That from and after this day of August, 
 
 184 — , all elections and re-elections to ofl5ce shall, honafide^ be originated 
 by the Conference itself, and not by any of its Committees ; and that, 
 for the purpose of establishing entire confidence among the brethren, 
 the vote of Conference, in reference to all official appointments^ shall 
 henceforth be had and taken by ballot.' 
 
 We think we see the rapid approach of the event. But we warn him 
 who may think himself called to propose it, that, in the carrying of it, 
 he must prepare himself for a life or death struggle. He will be sure 
 to encounter, from one who is well acquainted with all the tricks of rhe- 
 toric, some such plea as this, — ' None of your secret voting. It will 
 lead to canvassing, and to all the secret works of darkness.' 
 
 Nothing of all that passes the Conference gives such general satisfac- 
 tion as that portion of its business in which the ballot has, from the first, 
 been used. Every one is satisfied with the result ; for all has, at least, 
 been fair and honest. No intimidation, nor personal influences, can, to 
 any exteiit, have prevailed. 
 
 10. We have now searched to the ' Core of all Misrule.' We 
 believe, too, that we have suggested the only ' Cure.' The brethren 
 have the remedy in their own hands. But ' herein the patient must 
 
 minister to himself.' We venture then to predict, that, in fewer years 
 
 than you can number on your fingers, the vessel of our ecclesiastical 
 state, which is now almost on its beam ends, will right itself again. The 
 measure may put in peril the official status of two or three, who ought 
 to have had the modesty, long before this, to retire. But, subsequently 
 to the first grand effort for freedom^ ihere. will, upon our plan, be no 
 contention. There need not be one angry word spoken. A few scratches 
 of the pen will put all to rights. And in three or four years, every man 
 
 in office will have the heartfelt satisfaction of saying to himself, ' j 
 
 occupy the station I now fill, with the concurrence of a clearly expressed 
 majority of all the brethren, whom I love and honour the most in the 
 world ' 
 
99 
 
 The propriety of Vote hij Ballot. 
 
 1. It is perfectly scriptural. Acts i. 26. Doctor Clarke sajs, ' It is 
 possible that the whole was decided by what we commonly call ballot.' 
 Schleusner says that the lots {xXr^oi) were the tablets on which the apos- 
 tles had vvritten each the name of one of the candidates for the apostolic 
 office.' This method was adopted in a case of as great importance as 
 any that can come before a Wesleyan Conference. 
 
 2. It is Wesleyan. (The above quotation shews this.) 
 Objections urged against the Ballot. 
 
 1. ' It would occupy too much time.' In a couple of hours the 
 fifteen general committees might thus be formed. 
 
 2. ' It is odious and often cowardly.' This comes with an ill grace 
 from persons so partial to closed doors, privacy, and packed committees. 
 
 3. ''It would defeat the design of secresy.' The object is not secresy ; 
 but freedom from all improper restraint. 
 
 4. ' It is an American exotic' Things are not necessarily bad that 
 come from America. But we have traced it to Palestine. 
 
 5. ' No man need be afraid of voting openly, seeing he can suffer 
 no inconvenience.' We could tell some tales that makes this more than 
 doubtful. 
 
 The advantages arising from the adoption of the Ballot. 
 
 1. It is more grateful to the feelings to know that one is the man of 
 the multitude than that of the few. 
 
 2. He is placed in a much more honourable position before the 
 public, by a popular election, than he could be as the nominee of a 
 clique ; or, worse still, of a person of influence. 
 
 3. It gives him confidence in the discharge of duty, to know that he 
 is acting for the many, whose opinions are in unision with his own, and 
 who will support him in his exercises. 
 
 4. He secures his independence, irrespective of small party knots, 
 who would ever trammel him. 
 
 5. The safety of the body is preserved, as he is elevated by the body 
 who constitute it, and who must be satisfied with the choice they have 
 made. Hence, — 
 
 6. The great amount of personal qualification in the voters, who 
 know, not only that they have something at stake, but who are anxious to 
 preserve their privileges in the man they have voluntarily placed over 
 themselves to protect them." — Fly Sheets, No. 3, p.p. 32 — 36 ; No. 2, 
 p.p. 17—19. 
 
100 
 
 There can be no doubt that vote by ballot was the original mode in 
 which the Conference chose its officers. There can be no doubt that the 
 fathers of Methodism adopted this mode in order that the officials might 
 be " the men of their own choice^ in the fullest sense of the words. ^^ 
 There can be no doubt that this was the most effective method that could 
 be adopted to avoid prejudice, partiality, intimidation, apprehension of 
 displeasing another by a conscientious discharge of duty. There can be 
 no doubt that the men thus placed in office reached their dignity because 
 of the high esteem in which they were held by the majority of their 
 brethren. It does not appear that any serious inconvenience ever arose 
 from this mode of election. So far as the published history of Method- 
 ism shews, the ballot system, whilst it was adhered to, worked well. 
 The most incompetent were not thus elected into office ; that is certain. 
 Piety, experience, devotedness, usefulness, talent, genius, were not repro- 
 bated and " calvinistically passed by." The officers chosen by the 
 fathers of Methodism, when the ballot prevailed, were the pillars and 
 the ornaments of Methodism: — men whose "praise was in all our 
 churches." It was characteristic of the godly sincerity of these vener- 
 able men, and of their earnest anxiety that the unbiassed jjidgment of 
 the majority of the brotherhood should be expressed in every official 
 appointment. The plan exceeded to admiration. 
 
 Why was it innovated upon? Why, as new offices were created — 
 necessarily, in many instances — was not this well-working system of 
 election carried out ? It had not worked disadvantageously ; — more — 
 it was universally advantageous. The lot, in days of yore, did not more 
 effectually cause contention to cease, than did the ballot prevent dissatis- 
 faction and partyism, in the early period of Methodism. Is it so now ? 
 Are the holders of office in possession of their honours by the free suf- 
 frages of their brethren? Were they elected into office, or was their 
 continuance in office the vote of decided, clear, overwhelming majorities? 
 And does a large majority of their brethren rejoice to see them holding 
 office, some twelve, some fifteen, some twenty, some five and twenty, and 
 even more years, until they and office appear as truly one, as the half 
 human and half brute of the fabled centaur, appeared but one ? If the 
 Fly Sheets speak truly, the reply is decidedly, positively, unequivocally, 
 No, No. Are. they found in this matter false witnesses ? Then they 
 manifest extreme temerity ; for hundreds upon hundreds must know to 
 the contrary. Is it false ? Is it true ? Is the public to believe it ? Or 
 should the public stigmatize it a lie—that when the ballot is not resorted 
 
101 
 
 to in the elections for office, it sometimes happens, that for a very im- 
 portant office, only '"''Jifty''^ hands are held up, and upwards of '"'two 
 hundred''^ hands are kept down ? And then this is called a unanimous 
 vote ? Is this true ? "What does it indicate ? Free, unbiassed expres- 
 sion of opinion ? Has it ever been known that only " fifty " have voted 
 for the President, more than " two hundred" remaining neuter? For 
 the Secretary ? For the Chairman of the smallest district in England, 
 whose office at least is not more important than that of Editor of the 
 Magazine ? Perpetual Secretary of the Missions ? In every case of bal- 
 lot the votes are numerous. Few neglect the exercise of their franchise, 
 except where the ballot is unused^ and the hand must he held up : and then, 
 it appears, that a fraction of fifty may constitute the unanimous vote of a 
 Conference of hundreds ! ! Is not this suspicious ? Does it not lead 
 to the conclusion, that hand voting is not, somehow or other, favour- 
 able to a free expression of judgment and will? — Again: are the Fly 
 Sheet writers true or false, when they affirm that men are retained in 
 office whom " two-thirds of their brethren believe to be, (to say the least,) 
 not the most fit for the places they fill ? " If it be so, must there not be 
 " something rotten in the state of Denmark " — something wrong in policy 
 at least in the mode of election ? And is not the public compelled to believe 
 this, when every one hears repeated, what Mr. W. M. Bunting is reported 
 to have said, " There will be a change when my father dies ? " Has any 
 one ever conversed with a preacher, or influential layman, who has not 
 admitted the fact, though he may not have used the homely phrase of those 
 who say, "Alder, Beecham, & Co., will then hardly have time to pack 
 up their traps ? " The present system of voting is not working well. 
 Dissatisfaction — it is painful to acknowledge the fact — exists, spreads, 
 increases, becomes louder and louder. What is to be done to allay the 
 ferment ; to restore confidence ; to make the acts of Conference satis- 
 factory to the majority of the Conference? Can any plan do it, except 
 the adoption of vote by ballot " in all instances where personal favour 
 or feeling is likely to interfere ? " This may do so. Will anything else 
 do it? Should any delay be allowed in carrying out this good old Method- 
 ism ? To every one that would oppose the extension of vote by ballot, 
 may not the language be addressed — 
 
 Incedis per ignes 
 Suppositos cineri doloso ? 
 
102 
 
 X. Stolen Marches " One of the usual tricks was about to be 
 
 played off, at the close of the Conference, when the generality of the 
 brethren had left ; but Dr. Beaumont, and Messrs. Fowler and Vevers, 
 fully alive to the platform manoeuvres, remained till the coast was clear. 
 Dr. Newton proposed, and Mr. Mason seconded, that the representa- 
 tives should be chosen in the district meeting, immediately on the election 
 of the Secretary, and Dr. Bunting argued in favour of it. The brethren 
 referred to, knew how this would operate, met the arguments offered in 
 favour of the measure, and obtained a large majority against it. This 
 is one of those elections, properly placed at the close of the meeting, and 
 has been handed down by the fathers of the connexion, as a compliment 
 to the chairman, who, as preparatory to such election, shall conduct the 
 business of the district to the satisfaction of the brethren. The man, 
 under these circumstances, is on his preferm.ent — is tried before he is 
 trusted : and very properly so, for, as Dr. Beaumont justly observed, the 
 person thus elected might, on the examination of character, have some 
 charges preferred against him affecting even his standing in the body. 
 
 We regret exceedingly, that the motion of which Mr. Fowler gave 
 notice, was allowed to be passed over, viz. : — That every legislative act 
 of the Conference, shall be enacted within the first ten days of the sit- 
 ting of the Conference ; assigning as a reason, which weighs with us, — 
 that many important enactments have been made at the very close of the 
 Conference, when there were comparatively f^w ministers present, and 
 when so little time remained, that no sufficient enquiry and discussion 
 could occur. This subject, we hope, will still be kept in view, and the 
 usual trick guarded against. 
 
 We say, usual trick ; for many of Dr. Bunting's marches upon the 
 liberties of the brethren have been stolen towards the close of Conference. 
 The brethren having been either indisposed, in consequence of constant 
 attendance, or having finished what they deemed the peculiar object of 
 their mission to the place of gathering, have left the Conference before 
 its termination. The clique, remaining to the close, have then stepped 
 in to complete their altered plans and purposes. On the publication of 
 the Minutes, or on hearing of other resolutions entered into the Confer- 
 ence Journal, the brethren have been startled, and have exclaimed, — 
 ' No such rule was made that I heard of.' ' It was made,' has been 
 tlie reply, ' after you left, just at the close, when there were very few of 
 the brethren present.' In this way, the resolution for examining can- 
 didates for the ministry in the metropolis was carried; in this way, too, 
 
103 
 
 without two minutes discussion, a resolution was proposed and carried 
 by the notable Doctor — that a representative for each branch of the 
 Theological Institution, should sit as a member of the Stationing Com- 
 mittee. We could enumerate other cases, and may give a list of them 
 some future day. 
 
 How discreditable to take the advantage, in this way, of excellent, 
 unsuspecting men ! What a deep conviction of the wrong in itself, to 
 take the advantage of doing that in their absence which they are aware 
 of being offensive to them, or of the likelihood of carrying which in any 
 other way they entertain a doubt ! Is this the way to promote union ?... 
 Would they Avish themselves to be thus dealt with ? Is not such conduct 
 enough to drive men to what we should deprecate — radicalism ?... It is a 
 humiliating supremacy ; and good men, Vv'ho are outwitted by it, have 
 most cause of joy. 
 
 Doctor Beaumont and Mr. Fowler strongly objected to the motion 
 because of a want of previous notice. But previous notice would have 
 given the alarm, and purloiners of privileges are as little anxious of detec- 
 tion, as purloiners of property. It is only part and parcel of Master 
 Charles Prest's plan, — equally absurd and mischievous, but a little more 
 insidious. Though this motion was calculated to uproot a usage as long 
 established as representatives have existed among us, yet on Mr. Rule's 
 book on Methodism being noticed, Doctor Bunting could gravely, patheti- 
 cally, and earnestly, caution the brethren against becoming ' menders and 
 makers of institutions !' Admirable ! from a ma.n who has frittered down 
 most of the privileges of his brethren to the shadow of a shade — taken 
 them into his own hands — and was about to rob them of one of the last 
 shreds of another ! — a man who has given a new face to Methodism, and 
 destroyed its ancient spirit of brotherhood, simplicity, and honesty, and 
 induced one of caution, cunning, fear, and distrust! — a man, who in all 
 his studies — for of labour and hardship he has had little to boast — has 
 never lost sight of his ov/n ease and honour ! The truth is, no one is 
 allowed' to make or mend systems but himself; deeming his own patches 
 the most seemly for the ' coat of many colours.' A proposition from any 
 man, save himself and his own party, operates on him like the sight of 
 water on an animal under hydrophobia. Yet^ in the same Conference^ 
 he could object to a motion by another brother^ though of minor moment^ 
 for want of previous notice. 
 
 The Doctor unwittingly observed to a friend once, ' if we were to put 
 some resolutions in a full Conference, they would never be carried!!' 
 
104 
 
 This... from the improver of Methodism L.-^eVnew the fact before, 
 
 but its admission was wanting, to fix upon him the indeUble seal of 
 
 We still urge in the case, (Mr. Jackson's appointment as Lay-Agent 
 to our Missionary Society.)... He taking the whole family to London and 
 the entailing- on the fund £200. a year, before the sanction of Conference 
 could be obtained. ...That does not alter our views of the march stolen on 
 the Conference, by Doctor Bunting and his party, in first fixing him in 
 his present situation, and then asking permission of the Conference. 
 What were the Doctor's sayings, in connection with Mr. S. D. Waddy, 
 for not obtaining permission of Conference, before he applied to Sir 
 James Graham respecting the Sheffield Proprietary School ? Were they 
 not all condemnatory of the act? What makes the matter more astonish- 
 ing is, the manner in which the case was smuggled through the Confer- 
 ence of 1845, whose sanction ought first to have been obtained; for at 
 the Conference of 1846, when Mr. Vevers* asked for the Minutes on the 
 subject, not a single entry could he found in the Conference Journal ; 
 (concerning Mr. J's. appointment ;) clearly proving, that the opinion of 
 Conference had neither been given nor sought. No wonder that there 
 should be such a shew of utility, to hide and drive from the memory the 
 clandestine act. The President hhm elf declared it had not paused." — 
 Fly Sheets, No. 3, p. 9—11, 14, 15. 
 
 XI. Floating Opinions. " The follov>^ing sentiments and ex- 
 pressions have reached our ears and our eyes, either brought in, or 
 transmitted by our friends, or casually heard in the social circle, when 
 the parties interested were not suspected to be present. We can filiate 
 the whole as to time, place, and person, but forbear ; each parent will 
 know his own child, though it may have passed through half-a-dozen 
 hands in its passage to us : — 
 
 ' It is very extraordinary,' says one, to start with, ' but these Fly 
 Sheets have been out some time, and I never heard of them till now ; 
 (July ;) and what is remarkable, they have not once been named in the 
 Book Committee, of which I am a member.' 
 
 * It is a matter of surprise, that this geutloman has affixed his name to the Declaration, af- 
 fmriing that the Fly Sheets are lies. Why does he not prove their falsehood? He that has 
 shown so great eagerness to iix the authorship on Mr. Walton, and that, (though he has got into 
 a queer mess by it, if good brother Tabraham's letters contain the truth of the question disputed 
 between them,) has been so forward to write in the Watchman, ex parte statements injmious to 
 this highly esteemed and deeply hijured minister, must have some good reason for taking up 
 his quill to sign the Declaration, and some equally good reason for not taking up his quill to 
 prove, as v/ell as to (VHrm, their falsehood. 
 
105 
 
 * This mysterious silence bespeaks much.' 
 
 ' The expose is so complete and crushing that, I think, the party will 
 not dare to search for the authors, for fear of being held up to general 
 scorn and execration, by the publication of the Fly Sheets to the world, 
 which would be the inevitable result of an attempt to detect and punish.' 
 
 * There is too much truth in the statements : but the spirit is bad, and 
 the manner uncourteous.' 
 
 ' The first formal mention of the Fly Sheets in Conference was this 
 morning, TJuly 31,) by the great personage who has the most right to 
 feel interested in them. After charging Mr. Fowler with their publica- 
 tion, he intimated that he did not mean to say that he was any ways 
 implicated, than as having furnished information from his note-book.' 
 
 ' The Doctor and his men are extremely at a loss to conjecture from 
 what source some of the information is derived. He keeps harping upon 
 the treacherousness of this betrayal of what takes place in the debates of 
 Conference. But the general impression appears to be, that if persons 
 will say or do foolish things, they cannot hope to have them passed by in 
 silence. 
 
 ' I have heard the Fly Sheets mentioned among the preachers at Con- 
 ference, in conversation with each other, with no very remarkable 
 disapprobation.' 
 
 ' The general opinion appears to be, that No. 1 of the Physickers is 
 very severe, but sadly too true ; that No. 2 is full of excellencies ; and 
 great hopes are entertained as to the salutary operation which it is so 
 well calculated to produce.' 
 
 ' Though the spirit of the first is bad, it contains many things that are 
 substantially true.' 
 
 ' No. 1 is a terrible affair.' 
 
 ' It is stated that when Mr. W. M. Bunting read it, he was made 
 absolutely ill ; and that, till then, he knew nothing of £2000. given to 
 his father.' 
 
 ' More than one is concerned in these Fly Sheets.' 
 
 ' There is a regularly organised Committee, and a returned Missionary 
 wrote No. 1.' 
 
 ' It 'is desirable that the real Junius should be kept in profound 
 secresy, as ' the powers that be ' would persecute to death, the acknow- 
 ledged author of their confusion. On this account, and, also for the 
 sake of the good which will be effected by its occult influence, it is hoped 
 that its author, or authors, should ever be the ' Great Unknown.' ' 
 
 H 
 
lOG 
 
 ' Alder merits the castigation he has received, and so does Prest ; and 
 hoth, I hope, will improve under the rod ; the latter, on one or two 
 occasions, was refused a hearing in the Conference.' 
 
 ' None but a base assassin would write thus.' 
 
 ' It is the opinion here, (Bristol, before Conference,) that the parties 
 implicated will, if possible, be quiet : if they can, they will prevent any 
 thing being said : at any rate, they will not force the subject on the atten- 
 tion of Conference, if they can keep others from meddling.' 
 
 ' It is good physic ; it works well ; the impression against re-elections 
 and self-nominated committees is strong, and far from rare.' 
 
 ' Doctor Bunting told a story in the Committee of Review, which 
 told me that he felt the Fly Sheets.' 
 
 ' Doctor Alder looks mum ! ' 
 
 ' I have perceived two things : first, a disposition to avoid re-elections 
 of Presidents ; secondly, a strong dissatisfaction with the mode in which 
 committees are chosen : the iattiar has appeared in some strong objections 
 which I have heard against the late Financial Committee held in Lon- 
 don, on the ground of its not having been chosen by the free suffrages of 
 the Conference.' 
 
 ' Doctor Bunting made a speech full of graciousness to the ex- Presi- 
 dent ; and told him, how much and sincerely he admired the whole of 
 his conduct, both in the chair, and during the Presidential government 
 of the year.' 
 
 ' It is thought that the Fly Sheets have tended to tone down the spirit 
 of the Dictator.' 
 
 ' I was in a knot of the clique yesterday : we were all talking jovially 
 together, — but the moment the election was announced, one would have 
 deemed that they had all been like a certain priest of old, — struck dumb 
 in the temple.' 
 
 ' I expect some of the * satellites ' will throw their sympathies and 
 sophistries around their 'Jupiter,' and use all their influence to raise the 
 indignation of the ' brethren ' against the authors of the statements ; 
 and thus, as you say, shield the real delinquents.' 
 
 ' Not to have noticed them at all, would have betokened fear ; and to 
 have attempted to moot any fact, would have provoked enquiry. There 
 was great generalship in the Doctor's manner of treating the subject ; it 
 was after the manner of shouting out ' Mad dog ! ' The panic was 
 intended to prevent examination.' 
 
 ' How sudden the change ! It is like the shock of an earthquake to 
 
107 
 
 the old dynasty — like the still small voice to the free and happy. I hope 
 we shall never use our ' liberty for a cloak of licentiousness,' but 'by 
 love serve one another.' ' 
 
 ' All the brethren I have seen, have expressed their pleasure at the 
 publication of the Fly Sheets.' 
 
 ' The ears of the preachers are now open for the truth, and some are 
 feehng the possibihty of emancipation. The tide will set in wdth irre- 
 sistable and solemn grandeur, bearing away the old, musty, time-worn, 
 tottering palace of the aristocratic High Priest. Work while it is day — 
 take the thing at the flood — break the neck of Dagon, and scatter his 
 head and hands before the threshold of his own temple ! All may be 
 gained or lost ; the victory is in your hands.' 
 
 ' Doctor Bunting hinted to Mr. Fowler, that he must have known 
 something about these Fly Sheets ; but was indignantly repelled, and 
 had to back out as decently as he could, Mr. Fowler telling him he 
 would put him to his proof when his character was called over.' 
 
 ' Doctor Bunting, in opposition to Doctor Beaumont, said he would 
 argue the subject of re-elections at a proper time ; but the time never 
 arrived.' 
 
 ' The yoke is broken for ever, and we shall now have the Methodism 
 of John Wesley.' 
 
 ' Many have a sparkle in the eye, and a smile on the lip, on the subject 
 of Wesleyan politics, to which they have been long strangers.' 
 
 ' Methodism, Wesleyan Methodism, will breathe after her long syn- 
 cope, and stretch her limbs to the freedom of her ancient privileges : — 
 the homo sum was an assertion of right, heard only from one or two ; 
 now there is a regenerating feeling — a pulsation of the warm life-blood 
 of liberty throbbing in every heart, and uttering and echoing the cry, 
 ' am not I a man and a brother ? ' ' 
 
 ' I could not refrain from fervent thanksgiving to God, for having thus 
 succeeded the endeavours of his servants to rescue our beloved Method- 
 ism from the grasp of an artful, selfish clique. I am persuaded that the 
 Fly Sheets will effect more good in Methodism than the whole Buntingian 
 clique combined.' 
 
 ' The general opinion of those who have not surrendered themselves 
 to ' the powers that be,' is, that No. 2 has unfolded some of the most 
 wholesome and useful statements, which could appear ; and the effort of 
 a certain personage to shield himself under the ss^^mpathies of his brethren, 
 can only afford a very ' temporary accommodation ! ' ' 
 
108 
 
 ' It is one of the most tremendous attacks made upon the party in 
 modern times : the attempt is perfectly Lutheran.' 
 
 ' We know enough to confirm us in the truth of all that is stated. A 
 change is absolutely necessary.' 
 
 ' The Missionary Secretaries were placed in a situation which should 
 have led them to defend themselves by answering the charges of extra- 
 vagance preferred against them, especially Doctor Alder.' 
 
 ' The Secretaries ought either to have defended themselves, or to have 
 resigned.' 
 
 ' The Fly Sheets will diminish the influence of the ruling party ; the 
 Presidency is well argued.' 
 
 ' V/hat astonishes me most is, that the writers appear to be familiar 
 with all the secrets of the party. I have looked upon the platform as a 
 great evil.' 
 
 ' I can, from my own knowledge, vouch for the truth of many of the 
 statements. It is time the evils were corrected.' 
 
 ' It is all right ; the ' Fly Sheets ' should be widely circulated : we 
 groan, being burdened — with abuses.' 
 
 ' There is a great deal of acrimony in the first, but a great deal of 
 truth.' 
 
 ' I regret to find that occasion has been given for so much severity.' 
 
 ' The Fly Sheets will be sure to do good. Take the Stationing Com- 
 mittee : great mischief is done to character by the whispers of the repre- 
 sentatives ; and being bound to secresy, men are living on in the body, 
 without a knowledge of the cause or occasion of their treatment ; and 
 therefore, without the means to help themselves, Let those who talk 
 about anonymous attacks, and who tell us, if the writers of the ' Fly 
 Sheets ' have such charges against the reigning party, that they should 
 come forward openly and prefer them — let them, I say, look at home, 
 and think of this.' 
 
 ' Several strong barriers, which kept up the exclusive system, broke 
 down this Conference, ('1846.) The Platform, sooner or later, must 
 go.' 
 
 ' Dr. Bunting never had such a storm of noes as in the discussion on the 
 book-concern, when he attempted to twit Mr. G. Osborn : for which we 
 may give God hearty thanks. ' Amen,' replied the friend addressed.' 
 
 ' Liberal views took strides at Conference — aye, strides indeed !' 
 
 • We have now arrived at such a state of things, that, for the safety 
 and prosperity of both preachers and people, there must be two news- 
 
109 
 
 papers out of doors, and two parties in the Conference ; the on'e watch- 
 ing the other, and preventing all encroachment on our liberties.' 
 
 ' The persons who are engaged in this work of reform have an arduous 
 task before them, and a diiScult path to tread, — close beside that of as 
 watchful a system of espionage as exists — the successors of Loyola not 
 excepted. Alas, I could unfold tales, in addition to those with which 
 you have been painfully made acquainted by the Fly Sheets, enough to 
 make a refined and upright mind shudder ! and these under the garb of 
 Wesleyan Methodism : I refer, of course, not to matters of tangible 
 turpitude — but to insincerity, trick, and double dealing.' 
 
 ' "When the measure passed, giving a power to the London Preachers 
 to examine and pass candidates for the ministry, from all other compe- 
 tent District Committees, I said in my heart, ' I'm done with the cen- 
 tralized club for ever.' Such a self-sufficient, impudent, audacious piece 
 of presumption, I never witnessed before in Methodism : — a young man, 
 in some instances, sent to hear and decide on a candidate, on one speci- 
 men sermon, and possibly sent back after being recommended by thirty 
 or forty preachers belonging to one of the Districts in the country ! I 
 felt indignant, and resolved never more to take part in the mockery of a 
 provincial District examination of candidates ! ' 
 
 ' I look back upon the Conference with intense interest. To me, 
 there seems to have come upon us the first inspiration of a spirit, which, 
 in future, and in no very distant days, is to give a new aspect to the 
 administration of Methodism. I may be wrong ; but, to my mind, the 
 great ' Image' rocks on the plain.' 
 
 ' In a few years, toryism in Methodism will be what toryism in the 
 British Constitution is — an antique — a thing of bye-gone days — extinct as 
 a class, and existing only in a few stray senectudinarians of a former cen- 
 tury, and who, dying, like the two venerable knights of Malta, will leave 
 no successors behind them.' 
 
 ' They will never allow the second edition of No. 1 to remain un- 
 answered or unnoticed. But what a strong presumption of their guilt 
 is their past and present silence ! ' 
 
 ' It is worse than madness to sleep secure, or to set at nought this 
 hostile array against wrong : these attacks cannot be the work of a few, 
 but of many : not only are the outworks assailed, but a part of the 
 citadel appears to be in a blaze.' 
 
 ' I am resolved for one, and I know many more of the same mind, to 
 abide by single elections in the case of Presidency : never will I vote for 
 
no 
 
 the re-election of a man, however excellent, who has filled the Presi- 
 dential chair before. No. 2 has settled that question with me for ever. 
 There is no fear of a dearth of Presidents while we have such men to 
 fill the chair as S. Jackson, Beaumont, Lomas, Fowler, Vevers, Walton, 
 Lord, Haswell, Methley, Bell, West, Macdonald, and others ; any 
 of whom will fill it with as much dignity, wisdom, experience, and 
 piety, as either John Scott or Edmund Grindrod. If one man is more 
 worthy than another to fill the chair, it is Doctor Newton ; but much 
 as I admire him, the principle is still dearer to me than he is ; and by 
 the principle of single elections I am resolved to abide.' 
 
 ' Like Napoleon, Doctor Buntiug's dynasty will begin, continue, and 
 end in himself.' 
 
 ' There is too much truth in the Fly Sheets ; and they ought to be 
 answered — that is, if they can be answered.' 
 
 ' It is a wonder to me, that the writers did not, when on the Mission 
 ground, take up some important points, on which I think the Secretaries 
 are assailable. The London Missionary Society's affairs have been 
 examined by a most able and impartially chosen committee. Why not 
 the same thing done with us ? Two financial secretaries transact all their 
 
 business; why have we four?* Doctor Alder can be spared to leave 
 
 the Mission House to go to Canada : could not the presence then of one 
 of the four kings be dispensed with at our Somerset House ? If I had 
 had a hand in getting up the Fly Sheets, I think I should have thought 
 myself not over bright, if these points had escaped me.' 
 
 ' Nothing appears to escape the authors : they have eyes as searching 
 as fire ; and, as if possessed of Dionysius' ear-trumpet, they seem to 
 know every thing that occurs.' 
 
 ' It is stated in one of the numbers of the Fly Sheets, that Mr. Jack- 
 son from Manchester would be employed as an ' easy chair ' for Doctor 
 Bunting and his colleagues. This seems to have been prophetic. 
 Would you believe it ? That very man, who was elected under the 
 specious guise of going about to revive the Missionary cause in various 
 places, and paid for the work, was actually kept in the Mission House, 
 closely employed — sometimes nearly twelve hours in the day — in prepar- 
 ing the Missionary Report for the press ; a work for which the four 
 Secretaries are handsomely paid for getting up, and to which they affix 
 their names, as though the whole of the labour had been their own. 
 This useful agent assigned this as a reason, when on a visit to a place, 
 
 * See Appendix, Iso. 8, for Home Expendimre ;— being no less than £10,453. 13s. 5d. 
 
ill 
 
 why the Report of 1846 was out so soon, and why he had been able to 
 do so little in the provinces!* Little aware, that the sword was cutting 
 different ways ; falling with tremendous weight on the indolence of the 
 Secretaries ; the little need there was for him in his own peculiar sphere, 
 and the misappropriation of public money, in the payment of men for 
 work they do not attend to.' 
 
 ' I have heard a complaint on the part of some Missionaries, that more 
 is laid to their charge, in the General Report, than the station on which 
 they have laboured has cost ; and that they have, consequently, been 
 unable to make their own private accounts tally with the published ac- 
 counts, as to actual expenditure. This is an argument in favour of an 
 impartially drawn up Committee of Examination — but not from among 
 themselves. Some of the Missionaries, I am told, have been kept out of 
 their just claims for years ; and others of them have absolutely to turn 
 fish-mongers, and sell fish for a living. If this were known to a gener- 
 ous people like the Methodists, every feeling of their nature would revolt 
 at it.' 
 
 * Though I cannot acquiesce in all that is contained in the Fly Sheets, 
 I cannot resist the thought that the writers are conservatives; for they 
 do not attack the Constitution of Methodism, but its present adminis- 
 trators — its EXECUTIVE department, where there is certainly scope for 
 improvement : and I am glad that they confine the sheets and the con- 
 flict to the preachers — anxious, apparently, not to disturb the peace of 
 the body.' 
 
 ' The article on Secularization tells a tremendously awful tale, and 
 ought to rest with solemn weight on the consciences of the men that are 
 concerned in it.' 
 
 ' There is an error in the second edition of No. I, p. 29. Instead of 
 £800. being abstracted from the Centenary Fund, by the trick of chang- 
 ing information into advertisments^ it will be seen by adverting to the 
 General Centenary Report, that no less a sum than ,£1406. 13s. 7d. was 
 taken from the contributions of the people to support The Watchman. 
 
 * Is it for this, or some similar reason, that nothing has heen heard for more than a twelve- 
 month of the lay agent? Where is he? In the provinces? What doing? Stining up the 
 missionary fire in the length and breadth of the land ? No one knows ought about him ! Or 
 is he in London ? At the Mission House ? employed " twelve hours a day" as an "easy chair " 
 for Secretaries who can go to Canada, or sojourn at Southampton? What is he doing for his 
 salaiy? If doing the work of a secretary instead of a lay-agent, what is that secretai-y doing 
 for Ms salary ? The Journal of this agent should be published. A part was : why not more ? 
 Why not all? 
 
112 
 
 In this way, these tory speculators have contrived to refund part of their 
 own subscriptions. This paper is assisted in various ways from the 
 Connexional Funds. When the united committees met in April last, on 
 the Educational Scheme, copies of The Watchman were forwarded 
 gratis to the preachers, not excepting those of them that were regular 
 subscribers. Who paid for this? The Wesleyans out of their funds! 1 
 By these tricks, the conductors, at the close of thirteen years, have been 
 able to pay £10. to £100. shareholders, — taking care to deduct from 
 the ten, seven pounds for papers — thus favouring them with from three to 
 four in cash. And yet, as an inducement for persons to become subscri- 
 bers, they are told that the profits, after paying £5. per cent.^ are to go 
 to public charities ! ' 
 
 It is not generally known, that while the disinterested supporters of that 
 paper tell us, when assailed on connexional principles, that it is only the 
 allowed, not the authorized, organ of the body ; there are some of the 
 London preachers on the committee to decide on articles to be inserted 
 or rejected. How can the work of God prosper in the metropolis, while 
 those apostles, who should consecrate themselves, in the expressive lan- 
 guage of Doctor Bunting's Liverpool Minutes, ' fully and entirely to 
 their proper work,' are tied to a Newspaper, as to the tail of a dog cart ?' 
 
 ' W. M. Bunting said, ' My father can hook you all, and no other man 
 can do it but himself.' On another occasion, ^ There will be a change 
 when my father dies.' ' 
 
 ' Doctor B. sits at ease, forging chains for others, — making laws which 
 do not reach himself: see him tested by his Liverpool Minutes. His 
 mode of legislation shews that he has the most contemptible opinion of 
 his brethren : he legislates as for a set of disorderlies, always on the 
 alert to break forth into open transgression, not as for men of God.' 
 
 ' We have reached a perilous position as a body, — the very state of 
 things against which Mr. Wesley cautioned us. Rich men, through the 
 policy of Doctor Bunting, have now become necessary to us : nothing 
 can be done without our rich laymen : if any thing is wrong, or any 
 measure is to be carried, Messrs. Wood and Heald must be sent for from 
 Manchester. Such men — if we are to have them — ought to be changed, 
 as well as the Secretaries and others.' 
 
 ' Some of Doctor Bunting's friends are offended, because of the 
 £2000., subscribed for him being noticed ; stating, that it was a private 
 act : but such forget, that it was public both in its cause and effects, and 
 was given and taken at the expense of Methodism. The favouritism 
 
113 
 
 which the Doctor had manifested, and the honours he had heaped upon 
 these gentlemen, led to it ; and the fact of his attempt to coerce the 
 Conference into submission, by the expressed opinions and wishes of 
 these men, in the various committees, is a proof, that the body has had 
 an improper influence entailed upon it by the boon.' " — Fly Sheets, 
 No. 3, p.p. 36—44. 
 
 These "Floating Opinions" which in one shape or another, are 
 heard in many a fire-side and tea-table chat, are not to be taken for more 
 than they are worth, and would have carried more weight with them had 
 the persons' names been given, whose opinions they convey. Still they 
 are opinions which one has often heard expressed by preachers in the 
 private circle. They indicate that the preachers are more quiet than 
 satisfied. They shew, that if there be much appearance of unity, there 
 is no little amount of uneasiness. The people will recollect conversations 
 in which many of the above " Floating Opinions" have been expressed 
 by their ministers in the freedom of social intercourse. It is notorious 
 that these sentiments prevail among many of the preachers who, though 
 they may not openly utter them in Conference, do not conceal them in 
 private. Recent Conferences have, however, witnessed the open avowal 
 of many of the most startling of them. He must have but little inter- 
 course with our ministers who does not know that there is much dis- 
 content among them respecting the present administration of Methodism. 
 Passing events, it is presumed, will not allay the uneasiness. And till 
 the great body of ministers is united and satisfied with the administration 
 of Methodism, prosperity cannot be looked for ; and to secure this union 
 and satisfaction, the practice of Location and Centralization must be 
 abandoned. The preachers mutter much discontent. Is there a circuit 
 that cannot bear testimony to this fact ? Is not talk of a coming change 
 in the administration of Methodism frequent, general? " We know you 
 are not satisfied. You whisper here, and you mutter there, your dis- 
 satisfaction. Already we have published some instances of it in the 
 Floating Opinions to which we have given wings. (We are thinking 
 of publishing another series of these opinions.) In those already in 
 print, figure some who, though in the parlour, at the tea-table, when 
 from under the surveilance of the Buntingian police, acknowledge that the 
 Fly Sheets are ' too true,' ' substantially true,' yet afiix their names to a 
 Declaration of their slanderous and vile character ! We could give their 
 names, but we forbear ; as these preachers cannot at present afford to 
 lose caste, and it may be the means of getting them into trouble, and of 
 
114 
 
 having them sent to some poor circuit next year ; yet it is hard work to 
 refrain from giving the lash to a whining, but fawning spaniel.' " 
 
 Is this last quotation the expression of a fact ? Are there any — does their 
 conscience remind them of it — are their conversations in the recollection 
 of those to whom, prior to the issue of the Test, they addressed their com- 
 plaints and acknowledged the " substantial" truth of the Fly Sheets? — 
 are there any such names affixed to the Declaration ? Then must there 
 be some power in the administration of Methodism unfavourable to the 
 free and unbiassed expression of opinion ; there is, then, a painful clash- 
 ing between the private murmur and the public signature ; there must 
 be a distressing uneasiness of mind which makes a man disavow by a pub- 
 lic act what he has expressly and spontaneously affirmed in private — a 
 state of things this which it is distressing to contemplate, and which it is 
 most desireable to terminate. 
 
 XII. The Defence. " A single attempt has been made to screen 
 the clique from the severe attack of the Fly Sheets, and to annihilate in 
 public opinion the effect produced by their publication, as damaging the 
 Methodistic character of the alleged authors and abettors of misrule in 
 the body. Justice to ourselves requires that we notice this solitary 
 defence. To avoid the imputation of a consciousness that we are van- 
 quished, we must look in the face this piece of ordnance, which alone has 
 been discharged against us, and which, as it has not hit us, seems either 
 to have been fired by a sorry marksman, or to have been loaded only with 
 powder — capable of making a terrible noise — most harmless — reminding 
 us rather of a field-day than of a battle-field. 
 
 As some of us anticipated, No. 3 aroused the misruling party. It 
 could not pass altogether unnoticed at the Conference of 1847. Some- 
 thing must be done ; something was done ; and that something was worse 
 than nothing. The first blast of the war-trumpet — or rather the first 
 roar of the blustering ^olus — was heard in a preparatory committee, 
 when sundry of the assailed affirmed, that there were "villains" in the 
 Conference, and that they should be made " honest men of." In the 
 Conference itself, one of the longest, stormiest contests occurred which 
 the walls of that conclave ever confined.* 
 
 * " Our obsen'ations on this Test Act affair will be much briefer than we once intended them 
 to be, as the whole matter has been most clearly exposed, and the utter failm-e of the Test at- 
 tempt made manifest in an extremely calm, yet oft sarcastic tract of fifty pages ; the title of 
 which we subjoin, and the perusal of which we earnestly recommend to om- readers,— declai'a- 
 
115 
 
 A motion was made, that a declaration should be issued and signed by- 
 all the ministers of the body, each denying that he was, or that he had 
 any knowledsfe of, or had had any connexion with, the author or authors 
 of the Fly Sheets. Never was a graver mistake made by the friends of 
 misrule. Wellington's anti-reform speech, in November 1830, in the 
 House of Lords, — Lord J. Russell's declaration on the 23rd of May, 
 1848, in the House of Commons, that neither the working nor middle 
 classes desired reform, — was not a more unlucky event than G. Osborn's 
 pertinacity in bringing forward and persevering in this motion. For 
 what was it? For a committee to inquire into, and report on, the numer- 
 ous and serious allegations in the Fly Sheets? For an early period, 
 during the sittings of Conference, to be assigned to the assailed parties 
 for disproving the allegations of the Fly Sheets? Nothing of the kind. 
 Investigation was not sought ; investigation was not wanted ; investiga- 
 tion was dreaded ; investigation was shunned. The proceedings were a 
 pailful, but too small and too weak, of whitewash ; which, if it had been 
 applied to the extent desired by Osborn, & Co., would not have concealed 
 the coal-black to which it was applied. Doctor Beaumont, Joseph Fow- 
 ler, Samuel Dunn, distinguished themselves by the noble manner in 
 which they denounced this inquisitorial attempt : — 'Doctor Bunting is 
 reported to have received £2000. from a certain party : I know not 
 whether it be true or false; but Doctor Bunting knows. I am not 
 called to fight Doctor Bunting's battles. Let him fight them himself,' 
 said the intrepid Beaumont. ' I am called to declare that the Fly 
 Sheets are wicked lies. I cannot : for it is well known that many of the 
 sentiments therein, have been mine for years,' was the open avowal of 
 Fowler. ' If you send me to Shetland for refusing to sign this declara- 
 tion, I am ready to brave its seas and its tempest ; but I will never be a 
 party to the establishment of an inquisition,' said the independent, long 
 persecuted, but laborious Dunn. Several of the abetters of the system 
 took part in the discussion for the purpose of detecting the authors. 
 But mark it, men, fathers, and brethren ! Mark it : — not one defended 
 himself from the accusations ; not one took the Fly Sheets in his hand^ and^ 
 seriatim, noticed each main charge, and refuted, or ever disputed it. 
 Never had counsel worse cause ; never was accused in a more hopeless 
 
 tionists and anti-declarationists: ' The Fly Sheet Test Act Tested; ' comprising observations on 
 the Inquisitorial character of the Wesleyan Declaration of 1847, issued by the Eev. Messrs. 
 G. Osborn, J. Hargreaves, and H. H. CheLtle. By a Wesleyan. London : W. J. Adams, and all 
 booksellers." 
 
116 
 
 plight. The attempt was not made by counsel or by prisoner to assail 
 the Fly Sheets by adducing the facts and disputing them. The sole aim 
 of the clique and their instruments was, to detect the author or authors, 
 if among the brotherhood. The Dictator himself stood on his character, 
 and was content to allow judgment to be taken on this point alone. The 
 smaller fry imitated him... on a division of the House, it was doubtful 
 which side * had it.' Twice were the votes counted : and so nearly equal 
 (in number^ were the friends and the foes of this inquisitorial measure, 
 that it was doubtful — and, in the minds of many preachers, remains 
 doubtful to this day — whether the ayes or the noes prevailed. The Pre- 
 sident, — after a suggestion that the House should formally divide and be 
 counted had been rejected, — decided that the ayes had it. 
 
 Had what ? Aye, ' here's the rub ! ' A vindication of the Buntingian 
 policy ? A refutation of the Fly Sheets ? Anything but this. A doubtful 
 moiety of the Conference decides that there shall be a declaration decla- 
 ratory, that the subscribers are not the authors of these Sheets ! That's 
 all ! And does this satisfy high-minded men ? Does this give clean 
 hands to the parties accused ? Does this falsify our statements on the 
 evils of Location, Centralization, Secularization ? Does this disprove 
 our charges of selfishness, exclusiveness, partiality ? Does the slaughter- 
 house disappear before this vote ? Does the Rotten Borough now crum- 
 ble into dust ? Is the extravas:ant expenditure of the Mission-House 
 annihilated by this stroke of policy ? Can the heaping of thirteen offices 
 on one, and the exclusion, for years, of others in every respect his 
 superiors, be vindicated by this vote ? Does it not concede the truth 
 (in main) of the Fly Sheets ? If the parties were wounded by the Fly 
 Sheets, is this vote a mollifying ointment ? If their Methodistic reputa- 
 tion was damaged by the Fly Sheets, does this unmeaning motion repair 
 the damage ? Had a committee of the whole house enquired into the 
 allegations, and had the Conference, after a fair and full trial, with 
 no packed jury, with no evidence kept back, decided by a majority 
 of its members, that the charges were false and groundless, the 
 Doctor could have appealed to the vote triumphantly. He might then, 
 to use his own illustration, have had his sword restored to him by the 
 President. But as it is, we opine, that the more he hears and thinks of 
 that vote, the worse will his cause appear in his own eyes, and the more 
 will he regret, that George Osborn had not the shrewdness and penetra- 
 tion of Lomas ; who is said to have told the former, how great a blunder 
 he made by insisting on the declaration. 
 
117 
 
 What is the fate of this Declaration ? Its terms were never officially 
 approved; its issue was never officially authorized; the signatures ap- 
 pended to the circulars accompanying it were never officially authorized ; 
 it never received the signature of either the President or the Secretary 
 of the Conference. It lay on the communion table of the Conference 
 chapel tmder no supervision, so that whoever would, might sign what 
 name he would. It was hawked about for months. Young men were 
 told that they were under moral obligation to sign it. Weak men and 
 timid were told, that they v/ould be marked men if they did not sign it. 
 Some men, who, we suppose, were trimming and doubtful, were written 
 to again, aye, and again, till their signatures were extorted. Still, all 
 these appliances failed : signatures came in slowly. Three months had 
 elapsed, and the signatures were few indeed ; numerous names did not 
 grace the list. Alarm sprang up. The whole would be a failure. The 
 hydraulic press fortunately exists. Thumb-screv/s can extort what elo- 
 quence cannot reach. Conscience may be forced when the judgment 
 cannot be persuaded. ' It moves though,' said the philosopher, when he 
 subscribed what he could not approve. As the last resource to multiply 
 signatures^ and thus, if possible, to make a decentish thing of it, and 
 that it should not resemble Sir John Falstaff marching with his shabby 
 regiment into Coventry, Mr. Osborn announces in The Watchman, that 
 the names of those who had signed, would appear in print ; — and now, 
 ' all who stood out to the eleventh hour, but were frightened into signing 
 by Mr. Osborn's letter, which gave the signal, that all who did not sign 
 would be exposed, ran in, either from conviction of duty or dread of con- 
 sequences^ thus appearing under the suspicious circumstances of rebels, 
 who lay dov,m their arras when an anmesty, for the last time is proposed." 
 — Test Act Tested, p. 29 With the aid of these — we must say, sus- 
 picious — characters, Messrs. Osborn and Co. issue their declaration and 
 its signatures. Two hundred and fifty six of the preachers in 
 Great Britain have withheld their signatures. Yes, 256 members of 
 the Conference have refused to be a party to the measure, which, in and 
 out of the Conference, has been stigmatized as worthy of the papacy and 
 of the inquisition. Among these will be found three late Presidents, 
 and six chairmen of Districts, besides a number of men, who, in every 
 respect, are, to say the least, equal in all the valuable distinctions of 
 ministerial talent, character, and usefulness, to those who have seen fit to 
 affix their names to this useless document. 
 
 The ' Declaration,' then, is an utter failure. It has not accomplished 
 
118 
 
 its only object. It has not fixed the authorship. The hoped for prey 
 has escaped. The hunted victims are at large. Osborn and Co. are 
 defeated. '' Did they," to use the lan-^uage of the Test Act Tested, 
 " flatter themselves that they would reduce the non-signers to a small 
 and contemptible minority ? To one, two, or three recusants on whom 
 an inquisition might venture to enforce its un-English and unchristian 
 measures ? But one-fourth of the Conference is too large a proportion 
 even for men willing to exercise inquisitorial powers to proceed against.' 
 What will be done with the non-signers — 256 in number ? Had the 
 number been very small, they might have been gibbeted, quartered, and 
 
 ; but 256 suspended at Tyburn at once, is rather more at a time 
 
 than the present enlightened age would endure ; and especially in a cause 
 with which a large portion of the public sympathizes." 
 
 The clever critic whom we have just quoted, urges eight weighty ob- 
 jections against the signatures appended. They will be found in p.p. 
 
 9 17 of that able analysis. We have not room to quote ; but if one of 
 
 the eight be valid, the declaration is invalid — is not worth a straw, and 
 must be regarded as worthless by so shrewd an observer as Doctor Bun- 
 ting, however much it may be extolled by such of his followers who are 
 more distinguished for their keenness of scent than for far seeing sagacity. 
 The above writer forcibly argues that had every one of the preachers 
 signed the declaration, nothing of moment would have been effected. 
 The Fly Sheets would not have been proved worthy of discredit ; the 
 dominant party in Methodism would not have been cleared of the impu- 
 tation of selfishness, and intrigue, and lust of power ; the whole case 
 would have remained precisely as though no declaration had been issued. 
 But the Declaration has damaged them. ' Geo. Osborn's thirty-nine 
 articles' — (See Test Act Tested, p.p. 37 — 41,j — will long live, a heavy 
 unanswerable condemnation of a policy which sought to cover its delin- 
 quencies by an inquisitorial test, when it should have challenged and sub- 
 mitted to an impartial and searching investigation. 
 
 Thus end Test Acts and Gagging Bills for ever in the Wesleyan Con- 
 ference. The attempt failed when a similar effort was made to fasten 
 their clutches on the author of the *■ Takings.' This renewed attempt is 
 a miserable failure, involving all connected with it in confusion and 
 shame." — Fly Sheets, No. 4, p.p. 12 — 16. 
 
 What can be said to gainsay this reasoning is difficult to surmise. 
 The declaration if universally signed would be hardly more than " sound- 
 ing brass, and a tinkling cmybal." The Fly Sheets are based on Mis- 
 
119 
 
 sionary Reports and Minutes of Conference : they involve financial state- 
 ments, and acts of legislation, avowedly taken from these official and 
 authorized publications. It vi'ill be extremely difficult to conceive how a 
 numerously signed declaration of ignorance of, or non-connexion with, 
 the authors, will clear the parties on whom imputations, professedly 
 derived from official documents, lie. A " moiety" only of the Confer- 
 ence consents to the issue of the Test : whether a majority had voted for 
 it is so doubtful, that the votes (by shew of hands) are twice taken ; a 
 motion formally to divide the house and count the votes, is rejected : 
 many are still doubtful whether the motion was ever carried : the Presi- 
 dent's dictum closes the dispute. Is this satisfactory ? The Declaration 
 should have been quashed : or a ballot taken. Such votes damage a 
 cause : this bolstering is resorted to because the cause is felt to be weak. 
 
 " One-fourth" of the ministers of Great Britain have not signed the 
 declaration ! Nothing more needs be said ! To the public this is very 
 significant ! 
 
 It is evidently felt as such ; and in order to weaken, if possible, the 
 impression which this fact is known to have made upon the public mind, 
 renewed attempts are made to " beat up raw recruits " and to enlist 
 more "suspicious" characters. Messrs. Osborn and Co., distressed to 
 find that all their previous hawking of the Declaration, all their ques- 
 tionable modes of begging and extorting signatures, all their patient 
 waiting month after month for every and any solitary straggler who might 
 under stress of weather be forced into harbour or thrown ashore, have not 
 given weight to their declaration, have re-issued it. The Declaration 
 issued in August 1847 is re-issued in November 1848! During one 
 whole year, and four whole months of another year, has this ill-fated 
 Declaration been drifting to and fro, holding out signals of distress, and 
 piteously entreating every bark, smack, or fishing boat within hail, to 
 come to her relief before she quite sinks into the lowest depths of the 
 Dead Sea. With what success this re-issue vi'iil be attended, time will 
 shew. It can hardly be expected that men, who, in August, 1847, had 
 reasons, self-satisfactory, for not signing the Declaration, will, in Nov- 
 ember, 1848, recognise the right of Osborn and Co. to re-issue that 
 declaration ad libitum^ and stultify their own former decision by signing 
 it now, because three junior ministers have taken it into their heads, 
 without any permission thereunto granted by the Conference, that it is a 
 fit and proper time to send it forth, mendicant like, once more for signa- 
 tures. When is the declaration list to be considered complete ? When 
 
120 
 
 will the lists be finally closed ? Ai^e we from year to year to have a few- 
 more last signatures, as an old author has given us " a few more last 
 words?" Surely four months were sufficient to enable eleven hundred 
 ministers, all dwelling in Great Britain, all addressed by circulars and 
 by The Watchman, or else present at Conference, to sign a Declaration 
 sent to their dwellings, if they really wished to sign it ! Surely four 
 months was period long enough to enable them to decide whether they 
 ought or ought not to sign it ! Surely they needed not this voluntary 
 zeal of Osborn and Co. to quicken their dulness of conscience and their 
 insensibility! The re-issue is an insult to the parties to whom it is sent, 
 and deserves not a reply or notice from one independent man to whom 
 it has been addressed. 
 
 4hn official refutation, after candid examination, would have done what 
 no declaration, though most numerously signed, can do ; — it would have 
 convinced the Wesleyan public that the Fly Sheets are wicked lies, base 
 exaggerations, and gross misrepresentations. And the sooner this is done 
 the better. Recent events are bringing the Sheets into notoriety ; and 
 he vpill deserve well of the Connexion, who, instead of re-issuing " Test 
 Acts and Gagging Bills," will issue a calmly reasoned and statistical 
 refutation of these obnoxious publications — the more obnoxious, because, 
 if true, or if unrefuted, they involve the Connexion in odium and the 
 Conference in disgrace. " Let them be refuted, if they can be refuted," 
 is the sentiment of every genuine son of Wesley : but let not a declara- 
 tion be mistaken or substituted for a refutation. 
 
 XIII. " Triumphs and Signs of Progress. 
 
 1. The governing clique, a third time in succession, defeated in 
 their attempt to fill the chair with their ' nominee.' 
 
 2. The London Committee overruled ; — a young man whom they 
 had rejected, being placed on the list of candidates ; while others were 
 received whom the said committee had not examined. 
 
 3. The Stationing Committee condemned for having assumed the 
 power of an ecclesiastical court ; and having thus arrogantly inflicted un- 
 merited punishment on those excellent men, Messrs. Hobson and Dickin. 
 Thank God, they went too far, and got from the Conference what made 
 some of the unjust judges feel sorely. 
 
 4. (Has been given.) 
 
 5. Mr. Fowler descended from the platform preparatory to his ele- 
 vation to the Presidential chair. 
 
121 
 
 6. The Declaration Test opposed in Conference by nearly, if not 
 quite, half the brethren present ; shewing, that there is some suspicion 
 that all asserted in the Fly Sheets is not false in the estimation of many 
 preachers. 
 
 7. Though Mr. Bromley, this once^ is kept out of London, for the 
 weighty reason assigned in p. 6, he is appointed to Bath, and his name 
 appears on the deputation list. Men of Southwark, ye will have him 
 next time ye apply for him. 
 
 8. Great anger and wrath in the clique. 
 
 9. Pengelly removed from London, though art was used to keep 
 Spitalfields open for him ; and the hungry Scott unable to find an open 
 door in a London circuit, and so, all manner of contrivances is going on 
 to keep him squatted in some of our institutions there, and Prest in dike 
 difficulty.* 
 
 10. The Book-Committee entreated to review their decision in 
 reference to Burgess' Hymnology. 
 
 11. It was said, that the members of the Committee of Privi- 
 leges should not be considered as members for life ; the principle of 
 rotation should be introduced at the proper time. There was a dead 
 silence on the platform ! 
 
 12. Doctor Bunting said in reference to a new building, ' We 
 should do more and shew less.' Is light breaking in ? Less shew at the 
 Mission House, and at Richmond ? So say we. He had ' doubts 
 whether the Centenary movement, great as it was, had not injured us.' 
 And so have we. We shall be right now, as the Doctor and we are of 
 one mind. 
 
 13. (This also has been given.) Fly Sheets, No. 4, p.p. 20 — 22. 
 
 XIV. The "Corresponding Committee" and what they say 
 FOR THEMSELVES. " Our object in these sheets is not to sow discord in 
 
 the body We are not without assurance that ultimately the Wesleyan 
 
 body will be scoured of tricksters, drones, sinecurists, locators, lords, 
 selfish cliques, and favouritism. There is no wish to divide the body : 
 God forbid ! Methodism is the life of our life ! We wish it health, 
 peace, and salvation. We are of opinion that we are doing God service, 
 by thus attempting to purify the waters at the spring-head ; or, which 
 amounts to the same thing, by improving the executive department of one 
 
 * " Doctor Dixon is reported to have uttered very strong things against the clique. If it be 
 true, when he comes out, he will come out as a giant." 
 I 
 
122 
 
 of the best systems in the world. Vengeance is vowed by those whose 
 nests have been disturbed, against the authors who have been loaded with 
 every species of abuse, and whom it is their great anxiety to apprehend." 
 —Fly Sheets, No. 1, p. 3 ; No. 2, p. 2. 
 
 As to the publication being anonymous^ they ask, 
 "1. Is it wise? We think, — 
 
 (l.^ That there is wisdom in preventing the worst feelings being 
 brought into operation against known characters. Persons cannot 
 
 hate so well in the dark as in the light give them an object and the 
 
 bile will accumulate — and their guilt will be proportionably enhanced.... 
 The persons referred to are admirable haters ; any offence committed 
 against them is felt in its effects through life : Dunn was as much hated 
 and insulted after his renunciation of the Eternal Sonship, Bromley after 
 his softenings in the case of Doctor Warren, and Everett after he burnt 
 
 the 'Disputants,' as before These three men are just where 
 
 they were ; — nay, hated more. They are warnings to others not to give 
 place an inch. 
 
 (2.) There is wisdom in working under cover, when it is certain you 
 would not be listened to openly. Under cover we can go on unmolested 
 till the whole tale is told ; otherwise, an attempt would be made to stop 
 us in the onset. Junius was aware of his strength in this respect. 
 
 (3.) There is wisdom in avoiding unnecessary exposure. We may 
 be selfish here. But why should any class of men, to accomplish a great 
 good for others, risk their own position and interests in a community, 
 for whose success they have laboured, to whose support they have liberally 
 contributed, and which they ardently love ? Why purchase the possibility 
 of enjoying its privileges in its improved state, after evincing them, by 
 being persecuted from the body? We know our man, and are some- 
 what too knowing to allow him to know us. 
 2. Is it right? We reply, — 
 
 (1.) That we can see nothing morally wrong in it, while truth is ad- 
 hered to. 
 
 (2.) That the best leading articles, reviews, &c., in the ' Wesleyan 
 Magazine,' the ' Watchman,' and the most popular Journals of the day, 
 together with pamphlets and larger works, in which public characters are 
 assailed, are unaffiliated. 
 
 (3.) That agreeable to general usage, men are allowed to transact 
 business in their own way— to meet their opponents with their own wea- 
 pons—it is not usual for one party to ask another how they wish to be 
 
123 
 
 attacked ; each side assumes the right of thinking and acting for itself j 
 and of this privilege we shall not allow ourselves to be deprived. 
 
 3. Is it honourable ? We observe, — 
 
 (I.) That we have the example of others for our guide. Politicians 
 have their secrets ; commercial men have their hidden springs, &:c. 
 
 (2.) That we confine ourselves, as much as possible, to the priest- 
 hood 
 
 (3.) That we have no private, personal ends to accomplish 
 
 (4.) That we are preserved in countenance by the party we oppose, 
 whose policy is covert, cautious, and distrustful.... All their designs, plans, 
 and preparatory acts, are concealed 
 
 (5.) That we are not attacking, strictly speaking, individuals, but 
 a system. They are measures, not men, viith which we are at war. The 
 individual is noticed only on our way to the system ; noticed as its au- 
 thor and abettor, — and the instrument of wielding it to the annoyance of 
 others, — and as a participator of its exclusive benefits. From hence 
 arise our repeated allusions to Doctor Bunting, as the originator of most 
 of the evils of which we complain. The apostle could not notice the 
 systematic opposition with which he met, without at the juncture, men- 
 tioning the name of ' Alexander the coppersmith,' and others who were 
 the authors of ' much evil.' The men together with their deeds, abso- 
 lutely press themselves upon us they must take the consequence. 
 
 4. Is it Christian ? 
 
 (1.) Several of the works of Sacred Records are anonymous, and 
 in those books, attacks are made upon persons and systems. We are 
 quite alive to the distinction between their inspiration and our own falli- 
 bility. All we insist upon is, the example What avails it, if we are 
 
 wrong, whether we are told of it by a person in the dark, or one in the 
 light ? A knowledge of the person will be no justification of the deed. 
 What would be thought of any one, roused from his slumbers by the cry 
 of fire in the street, who should close his window, and go to bed again, 
 refusing to examine his premises, because the person giving the alarm 
 had refused to give his name ? 
 
 (2.) Most of the Reformers were compelled for some time at first, 
 to work in the dark ; not only for the sake of personal safety, but to en- 
 able them to see how the medicine would operate — what amount of oppo- 
 sition they might expect — and whether they had sufficient strength to 
 stem the torrent that might set in against them. 
 
 This last particular will go some way in settling the prudential charac- 
 
124 
 
 ter of the question. Christianity will, at all times, give her voice in 
 favour of opposing- corruption and correcting error ; if, then, she is on 
 the right side of the fact, it is with the manner that we have chiefly to 
 do ; and this again must be principally left to the wisdom we have to 
 guide us in the business. We shall be less in danger of suffering for 
 the manner of perpetrating the deed, than for the deed itself: the man- 
 ner may aggravate the offence ; but still, it is at the offence that we must 
 
 look The act, whether good or bad, will be decided by '' the law and 
 
 the testimony ;" the manner may be more or less happy and succesful, 
 according to the opinions of those v.'ho interest themselves in the matter 
 and in the final results. 
 
 5. Is it efficient? 
 
 We think it both is, and has been. Such was the overwhelming 
 influence of the platform, that any dozen men on the floor of the house 
 would have been frowned down, and discussion would have been strangled 
 in its birth. The men who have manifested such caution and taciturnity, 
 would have shifted the subject off, or stifled it by clamour. But the 
 brethren by means of the plan adopted, could read and inwardly digest 
 what was placed before them — not in the hurry and tumult of debate, 
 but in the calm of the study, or while musing by the way ; and the union 
 of purpose and effort at the Conference proves, not only that they had 
 thought, but thought calmly and deeply on the respective topics discussed, 
 so intimately connected with the prosperity of the body, their comfort as 
 men, and their liberties as christian ministers. 
 
 Let the complainants look at the Stationing and other Committees, for 
 freedom of remark upon moral, rehgious, and ministerial character ; — 
 anonymous to those that are without ; — men often injured for life, through 
 vague report, without knowing the authors, and without an opportunity 
 to vindicate themselves. The Stationing Committee is the great 
 Slaughter House or Ministerial Character. Having witnessed 
 the good effects of anonymous writing, in what we have already done, 
 we purpose going on in the same way. Ambuscade constitutes a part of 
 military tactics, and is very often more effective than open warfare: nor 
 
 is it deemed dishonourable to employ it In addition to the good effects 
 
 stated, it will appear, — 
 
 (1.) That in comparison with any other Conference, since Doctor 
 Bunting had the sole sway, there was never such freedom of remark as 
 at the one of 1846. 
 
 (2.) That there were never witnessed such boldness and resoluteness 
 
125 
 
 of purpose to check the abuses that cunning has suggested, and tyranny 
 imposed. 
 
 (3.) That the hberals never before — whether from accident or 
 design — acted with such union of purpose. 
 
 (4.) That Doctor Bunting and his party-men were never before so 
 thwarted in effect, or toned down in spirit." — F. S., No. 3, p.p. 2 — 7. 
 
 When anonymous writings assail private character, there can be, except 
 under most extraordinary circumstances, no justification whatever of the 
 secret mode of writing. Every lover of fair play, every man possessed 
 of honour, must set his face against this assassination of character in the 
 dark. Every man attacked in private life ought to know who hits the 
 blow. It is an affair between man and man, and the blow should be 
 given with open face in the light of day. The safety of society demands 
 this : the sanctities of private life require this. The workings of a 
 system, or the public acts of men who have the control or take a leading 
 part in the workings of it, are to be viewed in a different light. The 
 agitated question is not barely between one man and another man : he is 
 one of the many arraigning the acts of one to whom has been confided, 
 or who holds in possession, the administration of a system. The assailant, 
 therefore, is not meddling with a private and personal affair : he may 
 be the exponent of the views of many ; he is acting on public grounds, 
 and for public good. Why, then, it may be safely asked, should he be 
 the scape-goat for the many, in bearing the odium of an assault, as 
 though he alone viewed with dissatisfaction an administration, when 
 many may be glad to avail themselves of the reforms which he thus may 
 be accomplishing ? Public men in civilised and free countries, at least, 
 hold themselves responsible for their public conduct: they know, and 
 this is one powerful check upon them, that their acts will be animadverted 
 upon, and that they will continually be passing the ordeal of public 
 opinion. He that attacks them openly may be more chivalrous, but it 
 would be difficult to prove, that he was more honourable or valorous 
 than he, who, in an anonymous publication, assails their public conduct. 
 This has never been deemed morally wrong, or dishonourable. Witness 
 the hosts of political pamphlets and of articles in public journals, of the 
 most distinguished class for probity and for the estimation in which they 
 are held. It has often been deemed better and more honourable to 
 withhold the name that the argument may weigh by its ovi'n merits and 
 force. Junius is at the head of a numerous class destined to be perpetu- 
 ated as long as free enquiry into public affairs is permitted. 
 
126 
 
 With very few exceptions, the Fly Sheets consist of strictures upon 
 the administration of Methodism ; these strictures are free upon the 
 conduct of its administrators, and as based upon acts, and enactments, 
 and statistics that are published " by authority," or that take place in the 
 Conference. So far as this is the case, it is difficult to conjecture wherein 
 the authors of the Fly Sheets are worthy of censure for publishing their 
 pamphlets anonymously. If the administration of affairs is wise, just, 
 impartial, it is the easiest thing to prove it. If the administrators of 
 affairs have not so conducted themselves as public men as to be free from 
 charges of maladministration, the blame and disgrace of any exposure 
 which enquiry produces must fall on the heads of the executive. It is 
 their own doing. Are they ashamed of their deeds ? Or can they give 
 ••' an account of their stewardship?" As public men they must know 
 that they are responsible to the public ; they must know that the public 
 will exercise its judgments upon their acts ; they must know that any 
 individual has a right to discuss before the pubhc the legislative enact- 
 ments they bring forward, and to shew the bearing of their public acts 
 upon the public weal ; they must know that the strongest guarantee of 
 the preservation of a system, is its being recommended by its sound con- 
 stitution and its advantageous working, to the judgment of thoughtful 
 men ; and that a free expression of opinion upon its administration is an 
 indispensible safety-valve. 
 
 So far then as the Fly Sheets are an expression of dissatisfaction with 
 the administration of Methodism, the authors have only used an acknow- 
 ledged right — a right exercised by some of the most honourable men 
 living — in sending forth their publications anonymously. Of the spirit 
 in which these have been written divers opinions will prevail ; and most 
 probably some, to whose judgment much deference should be shewn, 
 will think their spirit too severe, occasionally bitter, and even personal. 
 Where there is any ground for this opinion, let no one defend them. 
 For though there are cases when "rebuke" should be administered 
 " sharply," on all occasions " truth " should be spoken " in love ;" and 
 men who find fault with the conduct of others should take care not to 
 give occasion of offence by the temper and spirit in which they animadvert 
 upon public affairs. 
 
 Unfortunately there are a few matters in the Fly Sheets that rather 
 belong to private life than to the public affairs of Methodism. This is 
 their weakness. This gives their adversaries power, and has enlisted the 
 sympathies of some whose views of the administration of Methodism are 
 
127 
 
 not less decided and less condemnatory of the present adrainisiration of 
 Methodism than those of the Fly Sheet writers themselves. This vul- 
 nerable point is perpetually alluded to, while the great principles are care- 
 fully avoided. Though these constitute but a very small portion of the 
 whole — only a page or two out of 130 closely printed pages — yet, like a 
 minute portion of an intense bitter, diffusing its property throughout a 
 large volume of otherwise useful liquid, this serves the purpose of men 
 who are more disposed to bring the authors into odium and discredit, 
 than they are to grapple with the exposed evils which their authors have 
 so far brought to light. Had these few instances of personalities, rather 
 connected with private than with public life, been omitted, the Fly Sheets 
 would have been no more indefensible, as to the matter they contain, 
 than nine-tenths of the publications that issue from the press on public 
 affairs. It is to be regretted that these flies are in this pot of ointment : 
 that these weak points embarrass the general line of defence : that such 
 an oversight should occur where there is evidence of so much shrewdness, 
 good sense, and thorough Methodistic loyalty. For it is plainly written 
 on the face of the publication, it is interwoven into the entire substance 
 of the publication, that its authors are hearty Wesleyan Methodists: men 
 who wish for no organic changes ; men who are no revolutionists ; men 
 who, whilst exposing its administration, love its constitution, and are 
 earnestly desirous of its prosperity. 
 
 It is true that they have been charged with disloyalty by those interested 
 in diverting attention from the strength of their strictures. " With a 
 view to make a deeper impression. Doctor Bunting raised the cry of 
 ' Traitors in the camp,' on noticing the information communicated in the 
 Fly Sheets. But we ask, — 
 
 1. Whether the cry does not imply fear and an attempt at deception 
 in him that raises it ? Why attempt concealment, if all were right and 
 straightforward? Truth and honesty have nothing to fear; and, above 
 all, they have nothing to fear when let out before honest, simple-hearted 
 men. When persons are in the habit of saving or doing that which will 
 not meet with general acceptance, they are anxious to conceal it, and 
 the more so as these things are abhorrent to general feeling. But where 
 is the treachery ? We ask, — 
 
 2. Whether it is not to be conjectured, that preachers are engaged 
 in the composition of the Fly Sheets ? If so, they belong to the camp ; 
 and are as much entitled to know, improve, and talk about the affairs of 
 the Connexion as Doctor Bunting himself; and the treachery does not 
 
128 
 
 rest with those, who, by dint of hard labour, have been able to extract 
 a Httle of the information that belongs to them, but those w^ho ungener- 
 ously try to keep it back, and so defraud them of their right. We ask,— 
 
 3. Whether when things are said in Conference they are to die 
 there ? Are not the preachers who hear them to be influenced by them, 
 not separately and alone, but in concert ? Is no permanent impression 
 to be made by them ? Is profound silence to be maintained the moment 
 the threshhold of the Conference is passed ? Is that which is spoken, all 
 right within, and wrong without ? We ask, — 
 
 4. Whether when a thing is confined to preachers — seen and read 
 by them* — that thing is not as much in the camp, with the preachers out 
 
 of doors, as within the house? It may be said that the privates are 
 
 not to be made acquainted with all that passes in the tent of the General. 
 True ; but it is to this kind of generalship we object, when brought into 
 the church of God, where all the preachers are officers, and equals, and 
 ought to be treated as honest and trustworthy men. There are many 
 brethren not allowed to go to Conference Are not these as much en- 
 titled to know what is done and said as the brethren present ? To these 
 we communicate of our abundance. But agreeably to Doctor Bunting's 
 doctrine, a good or bad thing spoken in Conference, becomes a species of 
 high treason the moment it crosses the threshhold of the house : it is 
 neither to be known, nor to be animadverted upon, by the timid who are 
 afraid to speak in Conference, or the absentee who is precluded from 
 going. We ask, — 
 
 5. Whether we are not on an equality with the generality of the 
 brethren, who, at the close of each sitting of Conference, are in the habit 
 of rehearsing and discussing in the rooms and at the tables of the friends, 
 the different topics brought before Conference ? They let the laity into the 
 arcanum of Conference matters ; we confine ourselves to preachers, and 
 so avoid a betrayal of trust, — holding communion with the members of 
 the house only. We ask, 
 
 6. Whether we have not exposed evils that have existed long, and 
 still exist ? And we demand the reason of their being allowed. There 
 must be a defect somewhere : and what has not been cured within, must be 
 
 * To the question, Why did not the authors, if preachers, speak these things in Conference, 
 rather than print them ? the old sentiment is a weighty answer : — 
 Segnius irritant auimos demissa per aurem, 
 Quam quoe sunt oculis subjecta tidelibus, et quoe 
 Ipse sibi ti'adit spectator. 
 
129 
 
 attempted without. Are members of the Conference (supposing them to 
 be the writers of these Fly Sheets,) to be charged with treachery for 
 talking Conferential matters over among themselves upon paper ? No 
 more than members of the House of Commons, or any of their constitu- 
 ents are chargeable with traitorism for attempting to correct the errors of 
 the state by calling public attention to them. We ask, — 
 
 7. Whether the deeper treachery does not lie at the door of Doctor 
 Bunting and his party, who resort to trick and closed doors? We are 
 for day-light — for things done openly in the face of the brethren — men 
 
 who are neither knaves nor fools We are anxious that all should be 
 
 allowed to participate in the same privilege. With Doctor Banting, 
 things the least objectionable are brought to light ; all else is to be trans- 
 acted in secret. Which of the parties bears the strongest marks of the 
 traitor? The men who court the light, or the men who hate it? We 
 ask, — 
 
 8. Whether Doctor Bunting, of all men, has not the least right to 
 talk about traitors? — a man, who, for years, has been labouring to betray 
 the Connexion, by means of The Watchman, into the hands of a state- 
 church and tory faction, in opposition to the general views and feelings 
 of the people ; — a man who could, without the sanction of the sub- 
 scribers, advise and justify the appropriation of c£40,000 for a few rooms 
 to squat down in, in Bishopgate Street; — a man who could coolly allow 
 .£800. (rather £1400.) to be taken out of the Centenary Fund, unknown 
 to the subscribers, to support The Watchman, — a speculation of his 
 private friends and benefactors ; this man, forsooth, comes from be- 
 hind the scenes, and charges the innocent spectators with being traitors ! 
 vexed to the core, because he has been detected and exposed. 
 
 By way of clearing this point, we should be glad to know from whence 
 the misunderstanding between the President and the superintendents of 
 different circuits has arisen, during the interim of Conference, respecting 
 the employment of Mr. Caughey ; — the former affirming it to be con- 
 trary to the decision of Conference, without deigning to quote the law ; 
 and the latter declaring their utter ignorance of any law having passed 
 containing such a prohibition ? If any such resolution passed, on that 
 special point, why was it not clearly defined and promulged ? Secret 
 legislation will answer the purpose of men who are afraid to publish the 
 laws they enact — who do not wish things carried out of Conference — and 
 who wish to employ their secret measures, as spring guns and men traps, 
 to catch the unwary, who may not be exactly to their mind, and who 
 
130 
 
 expect, in their unsuspecting innocence, that they are treacling on solid 
 ground. We may be told, that a resolution was passed, expressive of a 
 wish for Mr. Caughey to be recalled by his Bishop ; and that the Presi- 
 dent, after the resolution passed, stated, that if any superintendent should 
 employ him, he should be called before the bar of Conference. But 
 this latter portion constituted no part of the resolution ; and we are 
 governed by law^ not by opinion. The opinion of a President is entitled 
 to respect, when sound and proper, but not to obedience ; obedience 
 belongs to law. The Conference has been too long under the govern- 
 ment of opinion. The ipse dixit of Doctor Bunting has been too often 
 substituted for law. Those who insist upon such a law being enacted 
 against the employment of Mr. Caughey must be able to state, when 
 interrogated, at what stage of the Conference proceedings it was passed 
 — who was the mover, who the seconders, and who the supporters — by 
 what kind of majority it was carried — and where it is to be found ; 
 whether in the published Minutes, or Conference Journal ; and if in the 
 latter, whether it is to be seen by the parties arraigned, without interline- 
 ations, alterations, note, or comment ? If men are to be governed, let 
 the laws be promulged by which their conduct is to be regulated ; and if 
 they are to be tried and condemned, let it be according to law. Men are 
 not to be tried by opinion ; for if so, where is the safety of the impugn- 
 ers and opposers of Mr. Caughey ? Some of these, it is to be feared, 
 would have to ascend the scaffold first. No ; let the brethren out of the 
 Conference know what is done in it ; and how it is done." — Fly Sheets, 
 No. 3, p.p. 23—^6. 
 
 The reasoning here employed is so full of common-sense, straight- 
 forward argument, that it will hardly fail to produce conviction, and 
 the writers of the Fly Sheets may rest with very easy minds under the 
 imputation of " Traitors ;" and the more so, considering the close, con- 
 claved mode, in which the party, so calling them, concocts and prepares 
 its schemes. A law, never promulged, acted upon ! A law, not found 
 in the statute-book, authority ! This is strange legislation ! Who, if 
 this be sound doctrine, can know what is, or is not, law ; when he is 
 violating, and when keeping, the law ? It is an open door for despotism. 
 And, if Doctor Bunting and his friends be at liberty to publish in the 
 social party, by epistolary correspondence, in the columns of The Watch- 
 man, what they please of the proceedings of Conference, it comes with 
 an ill grace from them, to stigmatize as " Traitors," others, who use the 
 liberty of which their brethren have previously and long availed themselves. 
 
13] 
 
 THE MANCHESTEE MINOR DISTRICT MEETING, 
 
 AND THE LAW OF 1835. 
 
 The Conference Law of 1835 which has recently obtained such noto- 
 riety, and has been the subject of considerable discussion, is thus given in 
 " Grindrod's Compendium," p. 75 — 77. " In 1835, the Conference 
 deemed it expedient, on account of recent occurrences, to re-assert, by 
 declaratory resolutions, certain rules and usages which individuals had 
 attempted to contradict and pervert, and therefore unanimously declared 
 as follows : namely — 
 
 no That not only the Conference, but all its District Committees, 
 whether ordinary or special, possess the undoubted right of instituting, 
 in their official and collective character, any inquiry or investigation 
 which they may deem expedient, into the moral, christian, or ministerial 
 character of the preachers under their care, even though no formal or 
 regular accusation may have been previously announced on the part of 
 any individual ; and that they also have the authority of coming to such 
 decisions thereupon, as to them may seem most comformable to the laws 
 of the New Testament, and to the rules and usages of the Connexion. 
 In the District Meetings, especially, the chairman has the official right 
 of originating such enquiries, if he thinks necessary ; because our rule 
 declares, that the chairman of each District, in conjunction with his bre- 
 thren of the committee, shall be responsible to the Conference for the 
 execution of the laws as far as his District is concerned." 
 
 To this law the expositor appends the following note. This rule "was 
 certainly never intended to intrench upon the equitable principle recog- 
 nised in all wise legislation, that every accused party ought to have timely 
 notice of the nature of the charges to which he is required to plead ; 
 much less was it intended to supersede or obstruct the beneficial opera- 
 tion of its predecessor ; and this appears evident from the fact, that the 
 old law has been invariably acted upon, in the trials of preachers since 
 1835, as well as prior to that period : no preacher, it is believed, in the 
 intervening years, has been subject to any judicial censure, either in a 
 district meeting or at the bar of Conference, under the declaratory act. 
 
 The act was intended, 1. To preserve and perpetuate a usage in 
 Methodism, well know amongst our fathers, and never wholly abandoned, 
 
132 
 
 either in the District Meetings or Conference, of noticing, without formal 
 charge, and in the spirit of brotherly love, such minor faults and objec- 
 tionable peculiarities, as did not call for a judicial proceeding; but 
 which might, notwithstanding, operate to the prejudice of the individual 
 concerned, and to the injury of the cause of God. 2. To prevent, in 
 times of general agitation and disturbance, any delinquent preacher from 
 escaping trial through the combinations of a party. During the year 
 preceding the passing of the declaratory resolutions, there were circuits 
 in which the spirit of contentious misrule was so violent and predomi- 
 nant, that the preachers who faithfully adhered to our established dis- 
 cipline were so intimidated, and set at defiance by ' associations,' 
 rendered formidable through a shew of numbers, that they dared not 
 proceed against their faithless colleagues in the usual way. An assembled 
 District Meeting was surrounded and menaced, the ordinary course of 
 law was obstructed, and a few preachers who had aided and abetted these 
 violent parties, appeared unimpeached at the ensuing Conference. To 
 guard, as far as possible, against the recurrence of such a state of things, 
 the Conference asserted for itself, and in behalf of its District Commit- 
 tees, the right to proceed in their official and collective capacities ' to any 
 investigation or inquiry relative to the moral, christian, or ministerial 
 conduct of the preachers under their care, although no formal or regular 
 accusation, in the individual cases, had been previously alleged.' Should 
 such an unhappy state of things again return, as to render it necessary to 
 have recourse, in extreme cases, to the provisions contained in these 
 Declaratory Resolutions, it would be proper and necessary, in every such 
 case, to institute a strict inquiry into the causes of omission of the ordin- 
 ary course of preliminary proceedings ; and if any blame was found 
 attached to the persons vvhose presumed duty it was to bring the alleged 
 offender to trial, duly to admonish them ; and equally proper to give the 
 accused every facility for his defence, which the nature and circumstances 
 of the case would admit." 
 
 The expositor then proceeds with the law. 
 
 (2.) " That all Preachers who desire to remain in ministerial 
 communion with us, are considered as retaining that communion on the 
 distinct condition, that they hold themselves individually pledged to sub- 
 mit, in a peaceable and Christian spirit, to the usual disciplinary investi- 
 gations, not only of the Conference, but of all its District Committees, 
 whether ordinary or special, when summoned according to our rules and 
 usages J and that any preacher who refuses to submit to the friendly 
 
133 
 
 examination of the chairmen and of other brethren, or take his trial, 
 regularly and formally, before the preachers either of an ordinary or of 
 a special District Committee, when duly required so to do, shall be con- 
 sidered as, ipso facto ^ incurring the penalty of suspension until the 
 ensuing Conference ; because no possible security can be found even 
 against the worst forms of moral or ministerial delinquency, if persons 
 charged with any misconduct, and summoned to trial, be allowed to 
 evade, with impunity, our established modes of investigation." 
 
 The first idea suggested by this law is, that it is a violation of 
 Christ's law. A grave charge this ; but let any man read Matt, xviii. 
 15 — 17, and then say whether the charge is not as true as it is grave? — 
 " Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him 
 his fault between thee and him alone ; and if he shall hear thee, thou 
 hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with 
 thee one or tv^o more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every 
 word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it 
 unto the Church ; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto 
 thee as a heathen man and a publican." Is the above cited law of '35 
 in conformity with Christ's express commands ? Will any man avow 
 that it is ? Never was there a law of man more directly in the teeth of 
 the law of Christ than this law of '35. He must first be told alone, in 
 private, says Christ. He may first be told in the presence of 40, or of 
 400 persons, says the Conference law. If a private explanation be not 
 satisfactory, he must be visited a second time in the presence of a few 
 witnesses, saith Christ. There need be neither first nor second private 
 interview ; the whole transaction, from first to last, may be done in the 
 most public manner possible, saith the Conference law. The first inter- 
 view, strictly private ; the second interview, all but private ; having 
 failed of their end, then is the affair to be brought into public before the 
 church : so has Christ, in his legislative character, determined. Every 
 previous step being set aside, the affair is at once without any private 
 admonition or intimation to be publicly announced : so has Conference, 
 in its legislative character, determined. Who has supreme right to 
 legislate for the Wesleyan body ? Jesus Christ or the Conference ? It 
 is surprising that a law involving so bold and undeniable a rejection of 
 the legislative supremacy of the Lord Jesus should have passed in an 
 assembly of ministers who acknowledge the divine Headship over the 
 church of the blessed Son of God. Did this palpable overruling of a 
 divine law proceed from a body of men who avowedly set at nought 
 
134 
 
 Christ's authority, or who hold the heresy that Christ has left to his 
 church a power to annul, suspend, or set aside at pleasure any of his 
 laws, the charge of an impious rejection of our Lord's authority could 
 not be sustained. But for the very men, who call Him Lord, to con- 
 travene a plain law of His, and to supersede it by a bye-law of their own, 
 is extraordinary, unaccountable, and will render nugatory the efforts of 
 the wisest, shrewdest, and best of their theologians to give an exposition 
 of Christ's words that will shew the agreement of their law with His. 
 Introduce the supremacy of the legislative body of a church over Christ 
 himself, and there is an end of Christianity: the will of the "powers 
 that be," and not the will of the " only Potentate " in the church, will 
 be supreme and dominant. No action taken on this Conference law can 
 be valid : since the law on which the action is taken is a gross undeniable 
 violation of Christ's law ; and they who enforce the penalty of suspen- 
 sion on any man who refuses to submit to this unchristian law, are them- 
 selves under much sorer guilt and condemnation for violating, and 
 sanctioning the violation of, the Divine Law. To all such, Divine Truth 
 addresses the appalling rebuke: — "Therefore art thou inexcusable, O 
 man, whosoever thou art that judgest : for wherein thou judgest another, 
 thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same, (nay, 
 much worse,) things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them 
 that do such things, and doest the same, (and, even far, very far worse, 
 inasmuch as divine authority is infinitely above human,) that thou shalt 
 escape the judgment of Cod ? " This setting aside of divine authority 
 and supremacy in the church which He has bought with his own blood, 
 is alone sufficiently evil to bring down the divine displeasure upon us, to 
 account for our lamentable lack of prosperity, and for the distressing 
 divisions and strifes that exist in the body. 
 
 A second thought suggested is, what are the views of Wesley an exposi- 
 tors and theologians on this divine law^ and do their views countenance this 
 superseding of Christ's authority as a legislator 9 The whole of the 
 venerable Wesley's note shall be given, and the more so as the notes on 
 the passage to be found in Watson, Clarke, and Benson's commentaries, 
 are little else than a re-print of John Wesley's. " But how can we avoid 
 giving offence to some ? Or being offended at others ? Especially sup- 
 pose they are quite in the wrong ? Suppose they commit a known sin ? 
 Our Lord teaches us how ; he lays down a sure method of avoiding all 
 offences. Whosoever observes this three-fold rule, will seldom offend 
 others, and never be offended himself. If any do anything amiss, of 
 
135 
 
 which thou art an eye or ear witness, thus saith the Lord, If thy hrother — 
 any who is a member of the same rehgious community : sin against thee^ 
 1. Go and reprove him alone — if it may be, in person ; if that cannot be 
 so well done, by thy messenger ; or in writing. Observe, our Lord 
 
 GIVES NO lilBERTY TO OMIT THIS; OR TO EXCHANGE IT TOR EITHER OF 
 
 THE FOLLOWING STEPS. If this does not succeed, 2. Take with thee 
 one or two more — men whom he esteems or loves, who may then confirm 
 and enforce what thou sayest ; and afterwards, if need require, bear 
 witness of what was spoken. If even this does not succeed, then, and 
 not before, 3. Tell it to the Elders of the Church — lay the whole matter 
 before those, who watch over yours and his soul. If all this avail not, 
 have no further intercourse with him, only such as thou hast with 
 heathens. 
 
 Can anything be plainer 9 Christ does here .as expressly command all 
 Christians who see a brother do evil to take this way and not another^ and 
 to take these steps in this order ^ as he does to honour their father and 
 mother. 
 
 But if so, in what land do the Christians live? 
 
 If we proceed from the private carriage of man to man, to proceedings 
 of a more public nature, in what Christian nation are church censures 
 conformed to this rulei Is this the form in wJtich ecclesiastical 
 judgments appear in the popish^ or even the protestant ivorld? Are 
 these the methods used even by those who boast the most loudly of the 
 authority of Christ to confirm their sentences ? Let us earnestly 
 pray, that this dishonour to the Christian name may be wiped 
 away, and that common humanity may not with such solemn 
 MOCKERY be destroyed in the name of the Lord." 
 
 Nothing need be added to this exposition from the Standard Notes of 
 Mr. Wesley. The law of 1835 is as barefaced a superseding of the 
 standard writings of Methodism as it is a palpable violation of the in- 
 spired writings of the church. The law of '35 is anti- Wesley, as well as 
 anti-Christ. What then have our legislators been doing ? With what 
 face can they act in the very teeth of the founder of Methodism ? But 
 no wonder, they have laid Christ's supremacy beneath their platform. 
 " The servant shall not be above his master." 
 
 A third thought is, that this law is an atrocious one^ and capable of 
 being converted into an instrument of grievous tyranny and wrong. Under 
 this enactment, a man may be the victim of suspicion, malignity, or op- 
 pression. Without warning, he may be taxed with some moral delinquency 
 
136 
 
 by one base enough to entertain a suspicion, or give currency to a 
 rumour ; this may be done in a large assembly, and before he has time 
 to rebut the charge, the rumour of it may have taken wing, and the 
 public may be in possession of it ; and though the victim of this anti- 
 Wesley, anti-Christ law, may be innocent as a new-born babe of the 
 charge, and may ultimately establish before his judges his innocence, yet 
 in addition to all the mental agony he suffers, during the progress of the 
 enquiry, they who have not heard the evidence, even if they hear the 
 judgment of the court, will in all likelihood, retain the impression that 
 there must have been some shew of reason for the charge, or would a 
 brother thus publicly have made it ? Who does not know, that in many 
 instances when some delinquency or irregularity of conduct has been 
 pre-supposed, a private explanation has been most satisfactory, and has 
 caused the matter forthwith to cease, without being whispered into the 
 ear even of a third party. And will it not be allowed to be a grievous 
 evil to a Christian minister to be liable to be charged with, or to be in- 
 terrogated respecting, an affair, before hundreds of members of the same 
 body, when had the interrogator obeyed the law of Christ, the matter 
 would have been settled for ever in a few moments ? 
 
 Must not every one perceive, that, if a dominant and arbitrary power 
 should ever arise in a body, on whose statute-book this law is written, it 
 may be the instrument of grossest injustice, and of most torturing 
 cruelty ? Does it not savour of the inquisition ? Will it not enable a 
 dominant party to put the soul of a man on a bed of torture, as truly as 
 ever men's bodies were by the inquisition put upon the rack ? Is this a 
 law breathing the mild spirit of the disciples of Christ, or the fierce per- 
 secuting spirit of the disciples of Loyola ? Can the liberties of a minor- 
 ity be safe ? Can any man obnoxious to the ruling powers be secure from 
 the most hateful inquisitorial processes, if this law be anything more than 
 a dead letter ? 
 
 A fourth suggestion is, that this law must minister to strifes and 
 schisms. It is possible that there will occasionally be found men, in most 
 rehgious bodies, disposed to ride rough-shod when they have the power, 
 and willing to avail themselves of any technical means of accomplishing 
 their ends. It is to be hoped that there ever will be in every Christian 
 community, men of a free spirit, men who will not submit quietly to 
 mere domination and terrorism. Where there is a law which the one 
 class will eagerly catch at, and the other class will stoutly oppose, can 
 there be a well-laid basis of union, love, and confidence? With such a 
 
137 
 
 law before him, how can any man, the most consciously innocent, go into 
 an assembly with confidence, as he knows not, but that every moment, 
 some man may be springing out of the hedge upon him, with a charge 
 of which he has not had a surmise tiiat he is even remotely chargeable ? 
 Was ever a lav*^ passed more calculated to destroy confidence, to gratify 
 calumny, to torture innocence, to give wings to suspicion, to sow discord, 
 and to bring none but armed men — men armed to the teeth — into holy 
 convocations ? 
 
 A fifth remark. So undisguised, and undeniable is the evil and 
 tyrannous tendency of this law, that the author of the Compendium of 
 Conference Laws feels himself obliged to introduce a long note, in order 
 to soften down its harshness and to guard against its operations. He 
 evidently thinks it needs a piece of plaster, or two or three courses of 
 M'hite-wash. The public has been admitted into the Inquisition : this 
 instrument of power could not be overlooked by any man of thought and 
 freedom : its adaptation to purposes of atrocious cruelty and domineering 
 power would strike many at first view as one is struck by the " thumb- 
 screw " and " boots " preserved in a museum as a relic of the period of 
 persecution : it could not be put aside ; it could not be hidden by a cur- 
 tain or tapestry : so the guide informs the inquisitive public, that though 
 it is a tremendous instrument of power and torture to look upon, yet 
 that it is not so dreadful as it appears ; for it is intended to be used very 
 gently and tenderly indeed, and will not be allowed to hurt any one! 
 It is sufficient for the public to reply to the ciceroni, "It is in the 
 law — there is the pound of flesh." " The law allows it, and the court 
 awards it." The law does not say, what the expositor urges in extenua- 
 tion of a law condemnatory of itself, that it is intended only to be acted 
 upon in the case of " minor faults and objectionable peculiarities." Mr. 
 Grindrod says so : the Conference law says not so. Mr. Grindrod tries 
 to draw its teeth : the Conference does not allow the teeth to be drawn, 
 Mr. Grindrod appends a saving exposition : the Conference has not em- 
 bodied a saving clause. The expositor weakly apologizes : the Confer- 
 ence undisguisedly legislates. Mr. Grindrod speaks of " the spirit of 
 brotherly love " in which it is to be acted upon. A limited knowledge 
 of human nature as developed in all corporate bodies, will not inspire 
 much confidence as to the " brotherly love" which it will generate, but 
 will more likely awaken an apprehension of its divisive, schismatic, and 
 inquisitorial fruits. 
 
 It is matter of surprise that such a law was ever enacted. As long as 
 
 K 
 
I3B 
 
 it exists there will be discord. When will it be repealed ? Repealed it 
 will be. The public has been ignorant of its existence ; and public 
 opinion will soon decide against a law which is in the teeth of all British 
 law, which is the very antipodes of John Wesley's principles, and which 
 disputes the supremacy of the Divine Head of the Church. 
 
 But the law is not a dead letter. It is a sleeping scorpion. It is need- 
 less to argue on its liability to abuse. It has been abused ; — abused in a 
 way never contemplated by the expositor of this iniquitous and wicked 
 law. The Manchester Minor District Meeting is its foul birth. The 
 progeny does not belie the sire. 
 
 The Manchester Minor District Meeting. So far as the facts 
 of this case have appeared in the public papers, they shall be laid before 
 the reader ; and an attempt will then be made to give a candid judgment 
 on the judicial proceedings of the case. 
 
 At the Financial district meeting held in Manchester in September, 
 during the sitting of the Missionary Committee, Mr. T. P. Bunting 
 stated, that he wished to propose a question, and then asked the Rev. D. 
 Walton, whether he was not the author of one or more of the Fly 
 Sheets in which remarks injurious to himself were made, affirming, 
 that he (Mr. Bunting) had by a " slow but certain process," obtained 
 sufficient evidence that he was. To this, Mr. Walton replied, that he 
 had never written a word in his life injurious to Mr. Bunting's charac- 
 ter. Mr. Bunting, supported by the meeting, affirmed that this was not 
 a satisfactory answer, and required him to answer " yea or nay " to the 
 question of authorship. This Mr. Walton refused to do, on the ground 
 that he had declined signing the Conference Declaration, and consistency 
 required him to maintain the position he had taken. A vote was then 
 taken, and all but unanimously supported, that Mr. Walton was bound 
 to answer the question. Mr. Walton was firm, and the affair, as far as 
 that meeting was concerned, dropped. 
 
 Mr. Bunting, having being reminded that before mentioning the affair 
 in the presence of others, he should have named it in private to Mr. 
 Walton, who said that he had no doubt that had Mr. Bunting done this, 
 an explanation perfectly satisfactory would have been given, is understood 
 to have sought and obtained an interview with Mr. Walton in private. 
 This did not put a stop to further proceedings ; — notice of a minor dis,- 
 trict*meeting to be held was given to Mr. Walton, who was charged by 
 Mr. Bunting with being '' cognisant and concerned in the preparation of 
 
139 
 
 one or more of the Fly Sheets." The meeting was held on Monday 
 morning, November 13th, and continued at three adjournments until 
 Monday, November 20th. The parties examined in supporting the 
 charges were, the Rev. Messrs. Pemberton and J. Ryan, of York, and 
 the Rev. W. T. Radcliffe late of York, former colleague of Mr. Walton. 
 The Rev. W. Skidmore, of Great Grimsby, was summoned to the meet- 
 ing, attended it, but refused to reply to the questions proposed to him. 
 The Rev. Messrs. Burdsall and Everett, of York, were also summoned, 
 but declined to attend the meeting. 
 
 The court consisted of the President of the Conference, as Chairman 
 of the Manchester District, and of the Revs. Messrs. Naylor and Osborn 
 chosen by Mr. Bunting, and of the Revs. Messrs. Crowther and New- 
 stead, appointed by the Chairman, Mr. Walton having declined to choose 
 two members of the court. 
 
 The principal witness against Mr. Walton appears to be Mr. Radcliffe, 
 who deposed that he had seen a manuscript in his superintendent's study, 
 and that he behoved that some of its sentiments were to be found sub- 
 stantially in Fly Sheets, No. 2, published subsequently to his having seen 
 the said manuscript. The defence set up against this evidence was, that 
 the manuscript lay unconcealed on Mr. Walton's study table ; that he 
 had written his private thoughts on a public question — the re-election of 
 a President — without the remotest idea of publication ; that they were 
 written before he had seen or heard of any publication called the Fly 
 Sheets ; that this manuscript had only once been out of his hand, and then 
 was lent to a friend, and that it remained in his study until his removal 
 to Bolton, when it was mislaid, probably in the hurry of removal, and he 
 had never seen it since. And this he proved by reference to his short- 
 hand Journal, which he has long been in the habit of keeping. 
 
 The Watchman, evidently on authority, gives the judgment of the 
 meeting ; '* The meeting unanimously concluded that the charge prefer- 
 red by Mr. Bunting has been abundantly sustained, not only by the evi- 
 dence he has adduced, but also by the statements and admissions of Mr, 
 Walton himself. This conclusion has been greatly strengthened by his 
 repeated refusal to ansv/er many important questions, proposed to him in 
 the course of investigation ; and to produce certain documents which he 
 acknowledged to be in his possession, and v/hich might materially have 
 contributed to the settlement of various points affecting the enquiry." 
 The Watchman adds, " We have been informed that further resolutions 
 were passed, censuring Mr. Walton for his conduct, — requesting him to 
 
140 
 
 answer certain questions to be proposed to him at the next Annual Dis- 
 trict Meeting,— and intimating, that, if he decline to answer such ques- 
 tions, the Minor District Meeting will then recommend some disciplinary 
 measure. There were also other resolutions passed, calling the attention 
 of the Conference to the conduct of certain witnesses summoned to 
 attend the meeting, two of whom sent letters declining to attend, while 
 the other attended, but refused to answer the questions proposed to him." 
 On this case, be it observed, — 
 
 1. The preliminary steps were anti-christian^ un-wesleyan^ and 
 opposed to the common courtesies of life. 
 
 (1.) Mr. T. P. Bunting's attack upon Mr. Walton was a palpable viola- 
 tion of the law of Christ, Matt, xviii. 1 5 — 17. Has any man denied this ? 
 Dares the President of the Conference justify Mr. Bunting's conduct as 
 agreeing with Christ's law ? He has often preached from the 20th verse 
 of this chapter. Let him announce that he will preach in Manchester 
 and in Bolton from the 15th to the 17th verse, and if he can vindicate 
 Mr. Bunting's conduct in the Missionary Committee he can make black 
 white, and prove that a private interview is a public accusation. Let him 
 doit. It is no very favourable feature in an ecclesiastical proceeding, 
 that, at the very first stage, the authority of the Son of God, as supreme 
 Legislator in his church, is trampled under foot, and most undeniably 
 contemned and outraged.* It must seriously vitiate all subsequent pro- 
 ceedings. However culpable Mr. Walton may be, all the parties "cogniz- 
 ant and concerned in " the permission of this slight and contempt of the 
 supreme Head, are implicated in the highest guilt. If Mr. Vv^alton 
 needs the forgiveness of his brethren, the brethren that have sanctioned 
 this dishonour to Christ need the forgiveness of their God. If Mr. 
 Walton owes a fellow-servant twopence, verily these fellow-servants have 
 a large account to settle with their common Master ; and it may be that 
 wise men will wonder with am.azement, and God visit in anger, if for an 
 offence committed against man they seize their fellow-servant, if proved 
 in fault, '' by the throat," whilst they, in the very course of visiting him 
 with judgment, must plead guilty before an infinitely higher tribunal. 
 The case should have been quashed as soon as introduced. It is strange, 
 it is sad, and ever must be deplored, that in an assembly of seventy 
 
 * Mr. Bunting did subsequeutly seek an interview -vvitli Mr. Walton ! Tliis was an acknowledge- 
 ment that Christ bad been dishonoured: it came too late; and there are opinions afloat that 
 the interview was sought rather as a lawj'er's trick, than a brother's desii'e to lind occasion of 
 reconciliation. But this is only conjecture. 
 
141 
 
 christian ministers and elders, only one lifted his voice in favour of New- 
 Testament principles, and that his assertion of Christ's sovereignty vi^as 
 drowned in the voices of his co-judges and disciples ! 
 
 (2.) The law on which this extraordinary step was taken is already 
 too celebrated to require restatement of it. It is the notorious law of 
 1835; a law which itself is contrary to the standard waitings of the body. 
 But Mr. Bunting's conduct, and the Meeting's acquiescence in it, was 
 itself a flagrant and undeniable violation of the Conference law. The 
 law of 1S35, unscriptural and inquisitorial as it is, is an enactment only 
 to be acted upon by and among preachers exclusively. The meeting was 
 a mixed committee, where no preacher could constitutionally be put upon 
 his trial. It was a Financial District Meeting, where no case of charac- 
 ter can constitutionally be investigated or introduced. It was a Mission- 
 ary Committee Meeting, convened specially and exclusively on matters 
 pertaining to our Missionary affairs. The law has been perverted from 
 its intention. A precedent of most serious bearing has been introduced. 
 If this is to be sanctioned, there is not a committee in the Connexion — 
 the Book-Committee, the Education Committee, the Chapel Building 
 Committee ; if this is to be sanctioned, there is not a meeting in the body 
 — whether School Meeting, Missionary Meeting, Quarterly Meeting ; — 
 in which a minister may not, without a moment's notice, be put upon 
 his trial, and find a meeting summoned for financial business converted 
 into an ecclesiastical court ; and men who have no such constitutional 
 functions transformed into spiritual judges ! Can this be allowed in 
 Methodism as it is ? No man will be safe. Every one must come to 
 every meeting for transacting even the secular business of Methodism, 
 armed cap-a-pie^ as in times of revolution and anarchy, when it is not 
 safe for citizens to assemble without weapons of defence beneath their 
 garments. There is not a local committee meeting in Methodism that 
 may not urge and employ this precedent, if the Conference should sanc- 
 tion this perversion of law. Every member of that Manchester meeting 
 — from the President to the timid man who gave his silent vote — is guilty 
 of trampling under foot the established usage and statute-law of the 
 Connexion, and is liable to impeachment for the same. 
 
 (3.) Mr. Bunting's course was ungentlemanly. From Mr. Walton's 
 letter addressed to The Watchman for Oct. 18, it appears that Mr. 
 Bunting first asked Mr. Walton a personal question, to the effect of 
 whether he had written the attacks in the Fly Sheets upon Mr. Bunting's 
 character ; and to this question Mr. Walton gave the most unequivocal 
 
142 
 
 denial. Here the matter should have ended. Here, had a gentleman 
 been concerned in the affair, the matter would have ended. But Mr. 
 Bunting, who could have no right, even if all the preparatory steps had 
 been christianly and methodistically taken, to proceed to further interro- 
 gatories, changes his position, assumes the office of inquisitor general, 
 and demands from Mr. Walton an answer " yea or nay" to the question 
 of authorship. And here Mr. Walton ta,kes his stand, and refuses to 
 submit to this inquisitorial process. Was he not in the right ? Who 
 gave Mr. Bunting authority to propose such a question ? What warrant 
 had a Missionary Committee for entertaining the question ? Mr. Bun- 
 ting must be a sorry lawyer if he does not see that he was going beyond 
 all authority. A gentleman would have received Mr. Walton's denial. 
 Mr. Walton understood the courtesies of life^ and ga,ve what would have 
 been satisfaction most entire to any one who had not an ulterior end to 
 answer by the course he had taken. The first question appears to have 
 been put insidiously — to prepare the way for another. It does not seem 
 that Mr. Bunting was so anxious to be relieved of any painful impression 
 made upon his mind by the supposed conduct of an individual member 
 of the meeting, as he was anxious to find out the author of the obnoxious 
 publications. 
 
 It cannot be said, in extenuation of Mr. Bunting's conduct, that he 
 was taken by surprise, and fell into these errors unawares. " By a 
 slow but certain process," he had come to the possession of the evidence 
 on which he had grounded his attack. The inference, therefore, is, that 
 his course was deliberately taken. He had had plenty of time to think 
 how to manage it. If one sitting by him in the meeting had unexpectedly 
 whispered to him that Mr. Walton had written against him — had it come 
 upon him like a flash of lightning or an electric shock, and under the 
 impulse of the moment he had made this ungentlemanly assault — the 
 infirmities of human nature would have been justly pleaded as an extenu- 
 ation of his conduct. But it was planned and premeditated : and he 
 must use no ordinary legal tact to get out of the dilemma of unchristian, 
 anti- Wesley an, ungentlemanly conduct towards a man who hitherto has 
 been considered a most amiable member of the Methodist body. 
 
 2. The court before which the proceedings were taken. It has been 
 shewn of whom this court consisted. 
 
 (1.) Every member of it already had given his opinion both upon 
 the Fly Sheets and upon Mr. Walton, for declining to answer Mr. Bun- 
 ting's unseemly and ill-timed question. The judges could scarcely be 
 
143 
 
 ^expected to he on the side of the accused. It is difficult to imauine that 
 they entered the court unbiassed. If they did, they must he extra- 
 ordinary men, and will be meet emblems of Justice, even-handed, and 
 with her eyes covered. 
 
 (2.) The two members appointed by the President of the Confer- 
 ence, in virtue of his authority as Chairman of the District, Vvere Messrs. 
 Crovvther and Newstead. These two being nominated on behalf of Mr. 
 Walton, should, as a matter of course, if they had any leaning at all, 
 have been disposed to judge favourably of him. Was the selection of 
 the President a wise and judicious one in this point of view ? One free 
 from all liability to suspicion ? One that furnishes no ground for the 
 most uncharitable looker on to surmise that there was a sharp look out 
 thiit the judges should be men very likely to convict him, if there was a 
 bare chance of doing it. Who were the chosen of the President ? The 
 Presidenf s oivn colleague is one : the principal ivitness stiperintendent is 
 the other ! Could not a less questionable selection have been made of 
 men who were to appear on behalf of the arraigned ? Were there not 
 any two men in the Manchester and Bolton District competent to judge 
 in this case, and who, not having been at the notorious September meet- 
 ing, had not committed themselves to an official opinion on Ithe matters 
 in dispute? If so, why did not the President, acting on behalf of Mr. 
 Walton, select from these unexceptionable parties? Had he done so, it 
 would not involve the stretch of charity now necessary to persuade one's- 
 self that the President was free from bias, and that this bias against Mr. 
 Walton led to this imprudent and needless selection of men to constitute 
 the court, and force the hateful idea of a packed jury upon the public 
 mind. 
 
 Why did not the President select as one of the two, Mr. Tabraham ? 
 It may be said he had expressed an opinion on the matter in the District 
 Meeting. He had. He reminded the meeting of the law of Christ. 
 Surely this did not disqualify him for " serving on the jury." Had he 
 gone farther, and had he justified Mr. Walton for his conduct in the 
 September meeting, would he thereby have been disqualified to sit as a 
 member of the Minor District Meeting ? Would it have been too plain 
 that he was already under bias ? Would it have made it difficult for him 
 to listen to, and sift evidence, without prejudice? Would it, in any degree, 
 have impaired the moral force of his verdict, had that verdict been in 
 favour of the accused ? It possibly would. And will not the case tell 
 on the other side ? Whom did Mr. Bunting chose ? Men who had 
 
144 
 
 maintained a prudent silence on the matter ? No : men who in no very 
 measured terms had given forth their sentiments, Messrs. Naylor and 
 Osborn, decided partizans, men taking a foremost part in expressing' 
 their opinions on the whole affair ! This being the case, and Mr. Bun- 
 ting having the right to choose whom he pleased, and having chosen men 
 who were known to sympathise with his case, can any one justify the 
 President in the selection Vt'hich he made of the members of the Minor 
 District Meeting ? Was he driven by necessity to this selection ? In 
 the large and important Manchester and Bolton District are there no 
 preachers out of Stockport and Manchester capabje of adjudicating in 
 an affair like this ? 
 
 The world will believe that Robert Newton and his colleague had 
 talked this matter over with each other fully enough to know one 
 another's mind upon it, before it was known that Mr. Wtilton would 
 decline nominating any member of the meeting : why then was Mr. 
 Crowther appointed ? Unless Mr. Newstead had excluded Mr. Radcliffe 
 from his study and his confidence, it is not improbable that they also had 
 freely conversed together on the matter, and Mr. Newstead might have 
 unconsciously given more weight to his evidence first received and re- 
 iterated in private, than he would have done, had he received it in im- 
 mediate connexion with the explanation ; at least the President might 
 have judged so ; and to avoid the appearance of packing the court, and 
 to give these judicial proceedings, what they now egregiously lack — an 
 air of impartiality and a tone of justice — would it not have been more 
 prudent and obviously impartial to have selected almost any other two 
 men than his own colleague, and the principal witness' superintendent ? 
 
 (3.) The chairman of the meeting had been assailed in the Fly 
 Sheets, and was therefore about to judge in his own case. Mr. Osborn 
 had taken a very prominent part in the Declaration issue at the Liver- 
 pool Conference, and is said to feel the strictures made upon his con- 
 duct in this Test issue, in the " Test Act Tested," and was therefore 
 very likely to look with a jaundiced mind upon any semblance of evidence 
 that might enable him to lay hold of the prey, that hitherto he has hunted 
 with all the ardour and perseverance of one most devoted to the break- 
 neck sports of the chase, but alas ! though booted, spurred, and 
 foaming, all in vain. Mr. Naylor, however remarkable for the sound- 
 ness of his judgment, and the enlargement of his views, had unfortun- 
 ately committed himself, and somewhat strongly it is rumoured, on the 
 subject, and was likely, therefore, to enter the court in expectation of 
 
145 
 
 having his oracular opinion confirmed, not changed or abandoned. Of 
 the remaining members of this court, enough has ah^eady been said : they 
 were hkely to be seasoned as highly and delicately as the rest. 
 
 If Mr. Walton had a fair trial before this courts its proceedings 
 deserve to be preserved in the archives of Eternal Justice. 
 
 It is no reflection on them to say so. They must have been super- 
 human. Their grace must have been carried to the very limits of Chris- 
 tian perfection. They must have forgotten every thing of the past, 
 which they had felt^ and said, and done. They must not have been wil- 
 ling to find in Mr. Walton one of those, whom for months they had been 
 seeking, and on whom, if found, they were prepared, if not to wreak 
 their vengeance, to inflict the heaviest penalties which law would permit. 
 If, under these circumstances, justice was administered, never did justice 
 run in a purer stream — never did the ermine sit so pure on the shoulders 
 of human judges — never was human infirmity so severely tested — never 
 was human infirmity so gloriously triumphant. Aristides must no longer 
 be the type of justice : this long used name must give place to the longer, 
 less euphonious, but more fitting term, '' The Manchester Minor District 
 Meeting of November, 1848!" For verily, if they gave, under these 
 circumstances, a fair trial, they are the only men living of the sons of 
 Adam capable of this extraordinary greatness of mind I 
 
 3. The evidence furnished to sustain the charge. From all that as 
 yet has appeared on the subject, there was but one witness whose testi- 
 mony bore at all upon the case. The name of this witness need not be 
 mentioned. It is in every body's mouth, praising, or pitying, or con- 
 demning, or execrating, his conduct. 
 
 (1.) Let this witness' evidence be taken for what it is worth. For 
 the present, banish all recollection of the source whence it^ was derived. 
 Give it the full weight of an unsullied testimony. 
 
 Firstly, it is not direct. 
 
 Secondly, it is not even circumstantial. # 
 
 Thirdly, it is only inferential. 
 
 Fourthly, as inferential it is excessively feeble, and altogether insufii- 
 cient to ground upon it a verdict of guilty. Take the evidence. Sift it. 
 (Does it need sifting ?) The witness sees a private manuscript upon a 
 topic of public interest. He has a brief opportunity to inspect it by 
 stealth. Many months after a pamphlet appears in print, containing, the 
 witness " believes, some of the sentiments," and a Latin phrase, which 
 he furtively read in the manuscript. The inference drawn is, that the 
 
140 
 
 writer of the manuscript is the author of the pamphlet. Is this evidence? 
 On such evidence can any jury convict ? On such evidence can any con- 
 viction be vindicated before an unbiassed pubhc ? 
 
 Can much reliance he placed on this witness' recollection ? For must 
 not his perusal of the manuscript have been very hurried, as he might be 
 interrupted before he had finished perusing what he v^as so anxious to 
 know? One running with breathless haste does not often receive 
 vivid impressions of what is on the road. Must not his perusal have 
 agitated him greatly, from the momentary apprehension, that he might be 
 detected and " taken in the very act" of a clandestine and illegitimate 
 intercourse with another man's private papers ? And is nervous excite- 
 ment a great help to clear notions, and retentive memories, or, to use an 
 expressive term, does it ""flurry" one? And does any agitation give 
 a man a more thorough shaking than the agitation of conscious guilt, 
 aware that the sudden opening of the door will reveal the sad breach of 
 confidence ? '^ Stolen waters are sweet," whispers the tempter ; but the 
 tempted, while putting the desired chalice to the lips is uneasy, if he 
 thinks that the good man of the house may step in before he can replace 
 the cup, and he gulps them down too hastily to taste their true flavour. 
 
 May not this witness he deceived as to his recollections ? Was there 
 any reason why he should take particular notice of the sentiments in this 
 manuscript ? If not, why should he give them any other than that 
 passing and cursory perusal which leaves no very permanent and deep 
 impression on the memory ? In the absence of any particular motive for 
 a careful reading and intentional retention of the sentiments read, is it 
 not as natural, as fair, as safe, to infer, that when the published pam- 
 phlet, months after, came into the hands of the witness, he, recollecting 
 that a manuscript on this subject had been seen by him, first, innocently 
 enough, wondered to himself whether there was any similarity of senti- 
 ment between the two ; then, after having perused the pamphlet, tried 
 to rub up his recollection of an almost forgotten affair ; and, eventually, 
 persuaded himself, that the arguments, now read in fact for the first 
 time, were the arguments, in some respects, that he had before met 
 with ? So that he is in truth transferring the arguments of the printed 
 pamphlet to the manuscript, and not having his recollections of the 
 manuscript revived by the reading of the pamphlet. This is quite 
 possible. Courts of law have furnished cases analagous to this. 
 
 Do his recollections amount to any thing valid as evidence ? He " be- 
 lieves that some of the sentiments of the manuscript are found in the 
 
117 
 
 pamphlet." Is a man to be hanged by the neck upon such vague testi- 
 mony as this ? Judges ask not what a man believes, but what a man 
 knows. A man may believe a lie. Belief is sometimes credulous, partial, 
 interested ; one man believes one thing ; his neighbour believes its oppo- 
 site : which, then, believes aright ? As far as this witness knows^ there 
 is not one sentiment of the manuscript to be found in the pamphlet. He 
 KNOWS nothing ; he believes a very little ; he infers, and would have 
 the court to infer, a vast deal. This is too long a leap in the dark, for men 
 accustomed to sift evidence before they make a man mount the scaffold. 
 
 Allow the witness to he correct in his belief; and is the evidence then 
 valid :? Because some of Mr. Walton's sentiments are found in the Fly 
 Sheets, does it follow that he is the author, or that he intentionally and 
 knowingly communicated with the author for the purpose of having them 
 put in print ? Before the evidence, such as it is, can convict him in any 
 degree — T. P. Bunting, a lawyer, must know this — it must be proved, 
 that if Mr. Walton were not the author, but only communicated these 
 sentiments to the author, he did so with the intention that they should be 
 printed in the said Fly Sheets. Is there a particle of evidence to indi- 
 cate this ? Does Mr. Radcliffe say that there is? Does his testimony 
 furnish it ? If Mr. Walton communicated to the author, for all that 
 Mr. Radcliffe deposes to the contrary, he may have communicated it with 
 no more intention that it should go any further, than Mr. Radcliffe, 
 when his curiosity first prompted him to peep under cover, intended to 
 get himself into the queer box, where his legal friend has awkwardly, 
 and some say, unhandsomely, thrust him. 
 
 If the sentiments in the Fly Sheets are the same as some that were in 
 Mr. Walton's manuscript, it does not follow that Mr. Walton furnished 
 the author of the Fly Sheets with them. The subject was one of grow- 
 ing Wesleyan interest : the re-election of President, a subject in which 
 many felt an interest. Mr. Walton might in conversation have given his 
 views to a brother minister, to a lay friend, in his study, at the tea table, 
 in a large social circle : some individual, struck with their force, may 
 have repeated them substantially in another circle 500 miles off where 
 the question turned up, without stating whence he had them. In this 
 way, having travelled north and south, east and west, through the 
 length and breadth of the land, and having passed through an indefinite 
 number of hands, they at length come within the reach of the Fly Sheet 
 author or authors, (who seem to be ubiquitous ;) they are booked, and 
 eventually printed, and then Mr. Walton, who is, in truth, as distant 
 
148 
 
 from authorship as Noah before the flood, is chargeable with their pub- 
 lication ! And this is evidence ! Evidence to convict one of the most 
 amiable and spotless men in the connexion. 
 
 If the sentiments in the Fly Sheets, No. 2, are similar, it does not 
 follow that they are the same, as in the manuscript. May not other men 
 have the same sentiments as Mr. Walton on a general question ? Is it 
 at all extraordinary and unusual, for men to entertain similar views, 
 though these individuals have had no opportunity of comparing notes ? 
 Might not two Arrainians, one living on the continent, and the other in 
 Britain, express their sentiments very similarly on the extent of the 
 atonement, though they had never interchanged one word ? Judge 
 Jeffries, who had made up his mind as to the sentence he would pronounce 
 before he had entered the court, might receive such evidence, but a British 
 judge and a British jury, in 1849, will not administer the penalties of law 
 upon a man, who, so far as the evidence produced goes, is as innocent as 
 his judges themselves, and less liable to suspicion than some of the par- 
 ties who either have brought it before the court, or are endeavouring to 
 sustain it when brought there. 
 
 But it is said that there is a latin phrase in the Fly Sheets, which the 
 witness distinctly recollects seeing in the manuscript. Ergo : — the writer 
 of the one is the author of the other. Admirable ! The chain of evidence 
 is complete ! Not a link wanting ! Only one person in the Connexion, 
 writing or conversing on the Presidency, could, by possibility, use that 
 very uncommon, and until now unheard of, term, concio ad clerum! 
 Gentlemen of the jury, you need not quit the box : nor need you turn 
 your heads round : the evidence is so conclusive that you must, as far as 
 this evidence goes, direct your foreman at once to pronounce " Guilty," 
 in a voice loud as impudence, and harsh as injustice, and regardless of 
 public opinion as the Holy Inquisition ! Concio ad clerum proof ! The 
 clergy that can find a verdict on such trumpery evidence as this need a 
 discourse on some such text as, — " Judge not that ye be not judged ; 
 for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again ;" or, 
 " Judge righteous judgment ;" or, " Do all things without hypocrisy 
 and without partiality." The Wesleyan, for Dec. 28, has ably exposed 
 the absurdity and injustice of grounding a verdict upon such flimsy 
 trash, misnamed evidence, and no more worthy to be introduced into a 
 solemn judicial enquiry, as the principal evidence, than the gossip of half 
 a dozen old village dames in their eightieth year, sitting around their 
 tea-table. 
 
149 
 
 There is not a more common thing than to find the same classical 
 quotation in different works — and the same sentiments and forms of 
 expression in the writings of different Wesleyan authors. We have in 
 our recollection a case in which a literary character was complimented by 
 the present Bishop of London, with a quotation from the Latin classics, 
 and of another dignified son of the church, quoting the same passage — . 
 and applying it just at the same juncture, to the same person, on the 
 same subject, without even the possibility of the eulogists knowing what 
 each had done. 
 
 Is it necessary to go further into this case ? Would any jury, save, as 
 another correspondent of The Wesleyan drily puts it, the jury which 
 brought a man in guilty of manslaughter for stealing his neighbour's 
 small clothes ; would any other British jury allow the case to go on ? 
 Would the defence be called for ? Certainly not. No conviction could 
 take place on such evidence, even if that evidence were neither contra- 
 dicted nor explained away. As a defence was required at Manchester, 
 though the parties M'ho brought the matter forward will thereby cut a 
 more sorry figure than they do at present, the defence set up must be 
 brought up in this Vindication.* 
 
 (2.) AVhat is the defence pleaded against this worthless, flimsy, delu- 
 sive gossiping, dignified with the name of " evidence ?" Simple, natural, 
 unsophisticated, unsuspecting, open, honest. Mr. Walton acknowledges 
 that he wrote a manuscript on the re-election of a President. But he 
 affirms that it was not written for publication. His journal proves 
 that it was written before any Fly Sheets made their appearance ; 
 and he declares, before he had ever heard of any Fly Sheets either 
 in existence or in intention. Ought not these declarations to have 
 sufficed, even if a defence were called for? A more truthful man than 
 Mr. Walton does not exist in the Connexion. His, from the commence- 
 ment of his ministry, has been a spotless career. His integrity has never 
 been whispered against. The case should have been at once dismissed. 
 If any person obtained his manuscript, and used it for publication, he 
 himself is unblamable. It was not done with his consent or knowledge. 
 
 The leaves of this manuscript lie uncovered on his table. Is this the 
 way of a man about to publish a clandestine work ? Any one left alone 
 in his study, if curious enough, may see it. Does this betoken conscious- 
 
 * The reader is plainly to understand, that the " defence " is simply what has appeared in 
 the public papers. Mr. Walton is entirely ignorant of this publication ; nor are the writers of 
 this Vindication in possession of Mr. Walton's defence otherwise than the public are. 
 
150 
 
 ness of guilty intention ? The manuscript remains in his study for 
 months after the Fly Sheets have made their appearance, and long after 
 diligent and inquisitorial efforts are made to punish the authors. Would 
 any man, conscious of guilt, keep these papers loose in his study, if con- 
 scious that they had contributed to, or had been substantially printed in, 
 the Fly Sheets, with his knowledge and consent ? Would they not have 
 been destroyed instantly on the publication coming out, so that no evi- 
 dence criminatory of himself might be in existence ? Most assuredly. 
 This manuscript is not now to be found. On his last removal it was 
 lost ; Mr. Walton knows not how.* 
 
 Till lost, it was never but once out of Mr. Walton's possession. He 
 lent it to a friend. He refuses to give up the name of this friend. Is 
 not the reason plain ? Has the court a right to ask such inquisitorial 
 questions ? Might it not then ask whether his wife was absent from 
 home at the time he wrote his " Private Thoughts," and whether he 
 communicated them to her substantially ? Might not the court with equal 
 propriety demand of him the name of every private friend he has, to 
 whom he had written, directly or indirectly, a single thought on the 
 Presidency ? Let this High Court and Star Chamber practice be 
 allowed, and nothing will be too sacred, nothing too private and conse- 
 crated to all that is dear to one's best affections, to intimidate some bold 
 pettifogging busybody respecting other men's matters, from setting at 
 work all the appliances of an inquisition to gratify his thirst for power 
 or wreak his revenge. It was impudent to put the question : if the ques- 
 tion were pressed, it was outrageous. There are parties connected with 
 that Minor District Meeting who would shrink from questions not a whit 
 more inquisitorial, unfitting, and impertinent, respecting some of their 
 more private and personal affairs ; and, unless T. P. Bunting, W. T. 
 Radcliffe, R. Newton, W. Naylor, J. Crowther, R. Newstead, and G. 
 Osborn, are v/illing to have close questions put respecting their private 
 life and their intercouse with men and things, it was a most outrageous 
 and monstrous violation of another divine law, to press their impertinent 
 
 * It has been suggested, that as it is not more sinful or mean to steal the manuscript itself, 
 for the sake of written evidence, than to steal the sentiments, for the salce of oral evidence, 
 parties who would employ the latter, are not likely to have been scrupulous respecting the 
 former, if they had the chance ; and that their not having brought it forward is no evidence 
 that they have it not in their possession : as they may dechue producing it, because if tliey 
 have it,— 
 
 1. They would be liable to a prosecution for felony. 
 
 2. It may damage their wretched cause, even more than the evidence they have adduced, 
 by proving less than nothing. 
 
151 
 
 questions on this amiable man : " Whatsoever ye would that men should 
 do unto you, do ye even so unto them," Would each and every of the 
 above gentlemen like to be impertinently asked some questions respecting 
 transactions which he has had with any intimate personal friends ? Those 
 conscious of integrity would resist the attempt with honest indignation. 
 Such as were conscious of criminal or dishonourable participation with 
 their friends, would resent the vile attempt to make them criminate 
 themselves. Public opinion would give its unmistakable approbation in 
 both cases. 
 
 Had Mr. Walton dishonourably given up the name of his friend, what 
 could the prosecutor have done ? Only repeat his inquisitorial proceed- 
 ings, and — if that be possible — with results still less satisfiictory and 
 more futile. For until it had been proved that Mr. Walton, and the 
 person who had the loan of the manuscript, had never given in substance 
 any of the arguments contained in it, to any other person or persons, the 
 enquiry would have proved as wild-goose a chase as ever, and the perse- 
 cutor and court as far as ever from a conviction grounded on competent 
 and sufficient evidence. 
 
 Once again, let it be said, that if Mr. Bunting, in his professional 
 character, should ever bring a case before the municipal authorities of 
 Manchester, no better sustained than this, the bench will dismiss his 
 complainant with remarks not very flattering to the professional sagacity 
 of his attorney. 
 
 , Fifthly. It is not a case even of surmise and suspicion. It does 
 not amount to this. In a common court of law, Mr. Walton would 
 have been acquitted with honourable commendation. In a court 
 martial, he would have received his sword from the Presiding officer, 
 with every possible assurance that his honour was unspotted, and would 
 have been immediately and warmly greeted by the hearty felicitations of 
 his brother officers. 
 
 (3.) The witnesses who attended will excuse the freedom now taken 
 with them. As some came with rail-road speed, " zealously affected" in 
 this any thing but " good cause," they, at least, will not regret to have 
 their zeal and heartiness further advertised and blazoned forth. 
 
 Mr. W. J. Skidmore, for refusing to answer questions which doubtless 
 were impertinent and dishonouring, will not sink the lower in the esti- 
 mation of men who hate an inquisition, and will not lack their sympathy 
 should any attempt be made to make him smart for his honour and noble- 
 ness of conduct. 
 
132 
 
 Messrs. Pemherton* and Ryan, whose eager haste to be present— like 
 sundry insects that speed their way with all dispatch, when their keen 
 scent tells them that some animal has dropped its dung, or a piece of 
 flesh lies putried in the sun — made one curtail his discourse, and the 
 other give up his discourse altogether, on a Sabbath evening, that he 
 might travel to Manchester on the Sabbath day, must answer to their 
 conscience, to the irreligious public, to the Conference, to God ; — first, 
 for neglecting their pulpit duties, as though they had in hand a matter of 
 more consequence than " preaching as dying men to dying men," on a 
 Sabbath evening, when ministers are specially bound to give " a call to 
 the unconverted ;" — secondly, for travelling by rail-road without the plea 
 of necessity, on the Lord's day — for they could have reached Manchester 
 by a Monday morning train in sufficient time to give their evidence, what- 
 ever it was. Had an accident happened to that train, and had they been 
 killed on the spot, what account could the Conference have given in its 
 "Minutes" next year of their deaths? Abandoning without necessity 
 their most solemn ministerial work, and travelling, without the plea of 
 necessity, by rail-road, on the Sabbath day, from York to Manchester ! 
 It is too bad, Messrs. Peraberton and Ryan, even for the bad cause in 
 which ye were engaged. When will ye announce in York your intention 
 to preach from, " Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy ?" When ? 
 Why when ye truly repent : and this with deep contrition will be the 
 fruit meet for your repentance. Till ye have done this, even the irreli- 
 gious world will not hold you guiltless, and others will regard you as 
 impenitent desecrators of the Lord's day, for the part ye have taken in 
 the too celebrated Manchester Minor District Meeting of Nov. 1848. 
 
 Mr. W. T. RadcUffe, willingly should you be passed by, and your 
 name never more be mentioned, but the stern necessities of the case 
 
 * Mr. Pemberton, to get quit of the entire charge of guilty participation, states to his friends, 
 that he signed the " Test Act " before the secret was revealed to him by Mr. Curnock, and, 
 therefore, ought not to be placed on a level with him, the latter having signed after Mr. Rad- 
 clifFe's disclosure. But this does not reheve the case of culpabilitj^ With what shew of con- 
 sistency could he, after signing the " Test Act," and thereby binding himself not to allow any 
 slanderous attacks to be made on his brethren, go and bind himself vnih another promise — one 
 of secrecy — one of counteracting tendency — not to divulge the names of the authors of the 
 reputed slanders, btit allow them to pi-oceed in the work of defamation, in opposition to the 
 *' Test " put forth by Osborn and Co., to support the spirit and letter of which he was pre- 
 viously pledged ? It is of no importance v/hich pledge stands first ; they are opposed to each 
 other : there is no escape from disgrace ; and the impression is, in York and its vicinity, — and 
 sufficient circumstantial evidence has appeared to confirm it,— that both Mr Pemberton and 
 Mr. Ryan put themselves in the way of a joumey to Manchester on the occasion, by previous 
 enquiries, — and hailed the occasion, in anticipation of future honours and appointments. 
 
153 
 
 make it unavoidable. You are pitied : from the very heart you are 
 pitied. Your extreme wretchedness of position awakens for you pity 
 in the very bosom that execrates your conduct. In sorrow for you, in 
 abhorrence of your perfidy, these strictures are written. To forget you 
 is infinitely harder than to forgive you. Christian charity does the one ; 
 sympathy for yourself prevents the other. You have raised your ovv'n 
 monument. It is only too durable in its materials. You have chosen 
 the site for it. It stands so solitary and huge, and unparallelled, that the 
 passenger, passing through the square, involuntarily raises his eye, and 
 reads its inscription : ^'Alas, poor Yorick ! " 
 
 Mr. Radcliffe is Mr, Walton's colleague at York. He is frankly and 
 unsuspectingly admitted, as such, into his superintendent's study. 
 Preachers, especially superintendents with their colleagues, have not 
 been v/ont to receive each other as if coming under suspicious circum- 
 stances. The superintendent's study is the place for free and easy con- 
 versation, for serious deliberation, for mutual counsel, edification, and 
 prayer. All here has been free, open, without cover. It cannot be so 
 henceforth: lest an unsuspected Radcliffe should enter. Before any 
 superintendent can admit any colleague into his study, every scrap of 
 written paper must be put under lock and key, and the key kept in his 
 own pocket, or he is not safe : some unknown Kadcliffe may pry into his 
 manuscripts, may retain, or dream he has retained, a snatch of their 
 sentiments, and years after, what the superintendent has most innocently 
 written, may be tortured into evidence against him. Superintendents, 
 who have already enough upon their minds, must not have this additional 
 anxiety. The only safe way, since Radcliffe has violated the sanctity of 
 his superintendent's study, is for no superintendent to allow his colleagues 
 to enter his study ! 
 
 While Mr. Walton and his colleague are closetted in the study on 
 circuit business, the former is called out of the room ; the latter takes 
 the opportunity to examine his private manuscripts ! A man who does 
 this, must be lost to honour, must be culpably ignorant of the courtesies 
 of life, and has surrendered all claim to the character of a gentleman, 
 all claim to the confidence of his fellows. He has proclaimed himself 
 ready to abuse all confidence, stealthily to possess himself of a man's 
 most private and delicate secrets, and in the gratification of a morbid 
 curiosity, to repudiate no means, though they be most base, to come to 
 the knowledge which his prying diposition desires. Nothing but what is 
 under lock and key — if even that — is safe from such a one. He will 
 
 L 
 
154 
 
 know every thing that can be known, however unlawful and improper it 
 is for him to know it, if he makes up his mind to have it. No blush of 
 shame, no sense of decency, no principle of honour, no consciousness of 
 self-degradation, no spectral vision of the wrong inflicted on the man of 
 abused confidence, no enlarged and sensitive reflection on the frightful 
 havoc that would be made of personal, domestic, and social happiness, 
 and of the suspension and even annihilation of all confidential intercourse 
 which must result, if this perfidy were general, will be sufficient to deter 
 such a man from indulging his inordinate and uncontrollable curiosity. 
 He will take the forbidden fruit whenever there is a chance, if " plea- 
 sant to the eye, and to be desired to make one wise." If this be justifi- 
 able, there is an end of all confidence between man and man. Each 
 must receive his fellow as a suspicious character ready to pry into what he 
 has no right to know of another's affairs, and must treat him accordingly ! 
 But this is not all. Mr. Radcliffe reveals his shame : — not to Mr. 
 Walton. Oh, no ; Mr. Walton re-enters the room, and his colleague 
 is as sleek, and as "slimy,"* and as smooth-faced, and as cheerful- 
 countenanced, and talks, and smiles, and consults, and parts with as 
 apparently hearty and friendly a greeting, as if he had not perpetrated 
 the monstrous outrage of looking into a man's private papers ! Not to 
 Mr. Walton, whom he visits again and again with all the appa,rent ease, 
 and freedom of a man of honour, who v/as conscious of not having 
 wronged the man on whom he smiled, and who little suspects what a 
 traitor he has visiting him for months, in all the confidence which an 
 amiable and kind-hearted superintendent bears towards his esteemed and 
 honoured colleagues ! No, not to Mr. Walton, in a penitential state of 
 mind, to solicit forgiveness and to give him an opportunity of judging 
 how far it will be prudent to trust his colleague alone in his study in 
 future. Not to Mr. Walton, who, in a few minutes, could have offered 
 his most satisfactory explanation of what he had written, and his manly 
 forgiveness of his sneaking but penitent colleague. This is not done. 
 He still visits the man whom he has wronged ! He can, month after 
 month, affect an honest freedom which his conscience must have belied. 
 
 He can smile on the man he has betrayed. He can pray but the 
 
 pen refuses to proceed. Who knows how many other manuscripts he 
 has, both before and since, stealthily pried into ? Who knows what 
 other personal and family secrets of Walton's he has thus become privy 
 
 * " Slimy "—an epithet which a certain party has been veiy fond of using lately. It can be 
 used on the other side too. " I thank thee, Jew, ibr teaching me the right use of that word." 
 
155 
 
 to ? The enquiry must be extended. He confesses he has put his eyes 
 where they should not have been, in one instance. Is this the only one ? 
 Must not every man who has unsuspectingly received him into his house, 
 who has in honourable confidence allowed him to remain in a room where 
 papers, intended only for the owner's eyes, or pertaining to matters of 
 much family moment, have been left not under lock and key, seriously 
 fear, and reasonably suspect, whether that confidence has not been abused. 
 Colleagues and superintendents of Brother Radcliffe, in particular, may 
 you not justly fear that he has in his possesion some private affair of 
 yours, which hitherto you have thought safe in your own keeping, for 
 you had not imparted it to any mortal ? This is no longer a security. 
 A brother may have stolen your secret from you, and in such a manner 
 that you do not even suspect the robbery ; and it may never come to 
 light till he has done all possible mischief with it.* Is this one of the 
 modern modes of promoting mutual confidence and esteem ? 
 
 Is evidence thus obtained to be received in any court in the kingdom ? 
 Is such a witness a credit to any cause? Would any jury receive his 
 testimony with readiness ; any man " learned in law " congratulate him- 
 self that his name was on the back of his brief? Would not his be a 
 fine case for cross-examination, and under it would not he cut such an 
 awkward figure, that out of sheer pity, and that he might not swoon 
 away in shame, the defendant's counsel would say, " You may go Sir ?" 
 
 Is not the man wlio could read these private papers equally capable of 
 communicating their contents ? As he could make known his shame to 
 
 * Brother N. Curnock through a fortuitous absence from the Manchester Meeting has escaped 
 the castigation he so richly desei'ves for the part which he has taken in this vile affair, but 
 ■wliicU Ixis absence from the District Meeting threw into the shade. He too was one of Mr. 
 "Walton's colleagues. He too was in the habit of smiling on, and cordially greeting, and devoutly 
 communing with, Mr. Walton, while he was — it since appears — ready to burst to deliver himself 
 of a secret which he does not appear to have had any other reason for making known, than the 
 pride of appearing to know more than his neighbom's, and the contemptible and cringing hope 
 of benefitting by it. It was to liim that Mr. Eadclilfe first communicated his mare's-nest dis 
 covery. Brother Nehemiah, whose judgment will never fit him for an able councillor, and 
 whose egotism will ever make it difficult for him to retain any thing that will give him notoriety, 
 has not the sense or the honour to suggest to his informant, the propriety of stating the aifair 
 to Mr. Walton, and saying nothing about it until, at least, he has had Mr. Walton's explanation. 
 Nothing of the kind. He books it as evidence. It is, to his clear-sighted judgment, a clear 
 case. He wants to divulge it. To Mr. Walton ? No. Mr. Walton is giiilty : why tell him of 
 his guilt'? He longs to divulge it. Mr. Eadcliffe does the only honourable thing he now can do 
 — writes to him, letter upon letter, remonstrating ^rith Mm for wishing to make known v/hat had 
 been in confidence communicated. Mr. Curnock abuses this confidence, and after a time, when 
 his impatience to astonish the world and gratify his own vanity cannot be held in any longer, 
 disregards ihis remonstrance, and sneakiugly whispers this great secret to others. Mr. Nehe- 
 
150 
 
 Messrs. Pemberton and Curnock, might he not make known their con- 
 tents to those who directly or indirectly might communicate them to the 
 Fly Sheet writers ? The manuscript is lost. Who has it ? Who but 
 Mr. Radcliffe and Mr. Walton knew where it was ? He that could steal 
 the sentiments might as well have stolen the paper. 
 
 Universal execration attends this evidence. Men who disapprove of 
 the Fly Sheets, condemn, in strong terms, this perfidy. Who can do 
 otherwise without rendering his own honour suspected ? This part of 
 the transaction has produced an outburst of universal disapprobation. 
 No ! There are exceptions. 
 
 1. Mr. T. P. Bunting relies on this evidence for a conviction. 
 
 2. The Minor District Meeting tacitly approves of it by its finding. 
 
 3. The Watchman and his correspondent actually defend it, and 
 even applaud it. According to The Watchman, therefore, every man 
 who has a chance opportunity to intrude upon another's privacy, and to 
 make himself possessor of his private affairs, is justified in so doing. 
 Henceforth then — The Watchman and his correspondent being adjudica- 
 tors — it is lawful, it is honourable : a man will stand no lower in the 
 esteem of honourable men, if, as often as he can, he looks into his friends' 
 manuscripts, opens private letters that lie carelessly or in full confidence 
 on a man's table, examines whatever comes within his reach, asks no 
 questions for conscience' sake, but regards himself at liberty to act Paul 
 Pry any where, so that it be done stealthily, so that for years no man may 
 
 miali Curnock must now pay for his vanity, by going shaves with Mr. lladcliffe, in the odium 
 wliich, despite the hiU'd labours of The Watchman and his correspondents, falls on the party 
 who have thus persecuted and injured the amiable Walton. Mr. Curnock must stand side by 
 side with Mr. Radcliffe at the bar of public opinion. Mr. Curnock must expect that no colleague 
 with whom he travels will ever contide to him a secret which it is desired to keep in coniidence . 
 Tilr. Curnock must expect that those who have coutided other secrets to his honour and lidelity 
 are now trembling lest he should blab out other matters that jnay involve themselves or tlieir 
 friends. Mr. Curnock must expect that he v.ill henceforth, notwithstanding his smiling face, be 
 viewed with mistrust, as the man on whom he smiles, and whose hand he seizes with such 
 warmth, may be on the eve of exposure to inconvenience — though not to guilt— by his blabbing 
 yet flattering tongue. Mr, Curnock must expect that Mr. Eadcliffe owes him no thanks for 
 putting him so unexpectedly into his present awkward plight. Mr. Curnock must know what- 
 ever mischief, inconvenience, and e\il grow out of this wicked attack on Mr. Walton, he will 
 ever be considered one of the two authors of this confusion in om-. Church, and only some shades 
 less guilty than the Head Traitor. Mr. Curnock may take this cordial to his heart's comfort, 
 that there will be those, -who, because of his wilUng hearing of Mr. Radcliffe's base inspection 
 of private manuscnpts, and his willing acting on this basely obtamed information, A^ill think 
 that he (Mr. Curnock,) would himself not have shrunk from inspecting the papers had he had the 
 opportunity, — for he that does not blame evil in others, is very likely to do that evil himself 
 —and that therefore, it was a bare chance tliat he himself was not the Head Traitor. 
 
157 
 
 suspect him of these prying habits ! Is this christian honour ? May a 
 man do what he pleases ? 
 
 Rem, facias rem ; 
 Si possis recte : si uou, quocunque mocio rem. 
 
 Such doctrine is as viUfying to its advocate, as the act itself is to the 
 perpetrator. The defender is as bad as the accomplice, on the principle 
 that the receiver is as bad as the thief. Honourable men, such as Mr. 
 Vevers, among the conservative party, will not defend this treachery. 
 They have too high a sense of honour : they have too much at stake : 
 they know well, that whatever use may be made of this evidence, it has 
 been got at in a way which they will not by justifying identify with what 
 are their own principles and conduct. They know too well that he who 
 defends such baseness must himself be ready to practise it when oppor- 
 tunity serves ; and they will not hold themselves up as men to be avoided 
 and shunned by all who respect the sanctities of a man's closet and desk. 
 This unheard of daring, they will be careful enough to leave with The 
 Watchman and his highly honourable correspondents, who have announced 
 to the world, that when they can, and when they choose, there is no 
 privacy which they will not invade, and no confidence which they will not 
 abuse ? So be it. 
 
 4. The Finding of the Court has already been given, and the 
 fact that certain questions are to be answered at the Annual District 
 Meeting on pain of the exercise of further discipline.* 
 
 This is altogether an unparallelled case. Did it not involve very grave 
 matters, it would be a fit subject for satire. The charge is "abundantly 
 sustained by the evidence adduced by Mr. Bunting." What is the 
 meaning of this equivocal term in a judicial deliverance ? Did the Dis- 
 trict Meeting mean to say, that the charge was satisfactorily ^;/'oye<rZ :? 
 Did they mean the Connexion to understand as much when they em- 
 ployed that ambiguous phrase ? And yet would they, seeing how defec- 
 
 * How came tliis information into the Watchman ? It was understood that silence was im- 
 posed upon the parties. No evidence was to be published. (A strong reason may be guessed 
 for tills direction, that the judges were heartily ashamed of it.) Who put the decision and such 
 of the evidence as came out with it into print ? Who put Mr. Walton in this unjust and cruel 
 position before the public ? Silence is imposed upon all. That silence is broken just so far as to 
 damage, if possible, Mr. Walton in public estimation : and Mr. Walton is obliged to bear this 
 monstrous additional injustice, or he will be liable to further discipline by givijig such state- 
 ments as are due to himself ! This matter must not be left in the mist and obscurity which 
 Mr. Crowther's letter of explanation throws upon iti Some one deserves impeachment for 
 criminal ihoughtfulness, or for malignant malice. 
 
158 
 
 tive the evidence must appear to an impartial public, leave themselves a 
 loop-hole by affirming no more than that it was '' abundantly sustained?" 
 If the evidence did prove the charge, why did not his judges say as 
 much ? Why was not their decision made plain and intelligible to every 
 man of common sense ? If the evidence did not prove the charge, why 
 was not the finding a plain and intelligible record of the defect and 
 insufficiency of the evidence ? No one can know, except those whom 
 they may have let into the secret of their meaning, what their judgment 
 is. This " abundantly sustained " charge is, however, *' greatly 
 strengthened" — by what, think you, — an intelligent public to whom 
 these observations are addressed ? — " By his repeated refusal to answer 
 many important questions." Was ever any thing more absurd ? Mr. 
 Walton's silence — under interrogatories, that no one, who has noticed 
 the spirit in which the whole affair has been done, can doubt were most 
 inquisitorial, and, if answered, would probably not only have covered 
 the court and the trial with deeper dishonour, but himself also — is per- 
 verted into evidence against him by this modern inquisition. It takes us 
 back to days of darkness. It immures us again within the gloomy walls 
 of the inquisition. Mr. Walton went to the meeting not to furnish the 
 inquisitor general with evidence but to hear his evidence and meet it. 
 This he did. More he had not to do. He evidently knew his duty, 
 much better than the " Triers" knew theirs. And because he main- 
 tains his proper position, a charge already "abundantly sustained" is 
 "greatly strengthened!" "This establishing of & positive accusation 
 upon a negative answer, or rather upon no answer at all, is an example 
 of logical acumen," says a clever correspondent of The Wesleyan, 
 " worthy the unsanctified and cruel cause in which it is employed." 
 
 A charge being " abundantly sustained," and then again " greatly 
 strengthened," of course sentence is in so clear a case immediately pro- 
 nounced. No it is not. Until seven months have elapsed Mr. Walton 
 will not know even what the Minor District Meeting will propose to 
 another meeting as its sentence. Is it not cruel to keep a man thus on 
 the tenter hooks for seven months ? Is this the way in which courts of 
 law act? Did the inquisition, did the Revolutionary Tribunal, did 
 Judge Jeffreys, light upon this devise for adding to the pain of punish- 
 ment ? Telling a prisoner that the charge, involving life or death, is 
 abundantly sustained, but that for seven months the accused shall remain 
 ignorant, and anxious respecting his fate ! Does Wesleyan law allow 
 this ? With what view is this done ? " The tender mercies of the wicked 
 
159 
 
 are cruel." The object of this delay is atrocious. Certain questions 
 are proposed to him ; doubtless ensnaring, dishonourable, inquisitorial 
 ones; and if, in the mean time, unanswered,, then some discipl,inary 
 MEASURE will be recommended ! " We presume," says the correspondent 
 before quoted, " that the disciplinary measure here alluded to, is sus- 
 pension from the Ministry ! And we also presume that the ' certain 
 questions ' to be proposed have reference either to Mr. Walton's own 
 supposed criminality, or to his supposed knowledge of the parties actually 
 the authors of the Fly Sheets. If we are right in these presumptions — 
 (would that we were mistaken) — then have we a most atrocious example 
 (f the torture — of an apprehended suspension, in the case of a minister 
 cf thirty-four years standing, an apprehension weighing upon the mind 
 for seven months^ in order to extort a disclosure. ' When,' says Black- 
 sione, ' upon the assassination of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, it was 
 proposed in the Privy Council to put the assassin to the rack, in order 
 t;) discover his accomplices ; the judges being consulted, declared unan- 
 imously, to their honour and the honour of English law, that no such 
 proceeding was allowable by the laws of England! ' But either because 
 the assassination of a Duke is a far less crime than contributing to the 
 Fly Sheets ; or because the judges of this Minor District Meeting at 
 Manchester, (be it rememberedj are far less equitable and humane than 
 the judges whom Blackstone thus commends ! so it is — that in order 
 to discover Mr. Walton's accomplices, if he have any, the worst of all 
 tortures — the peine forte et dure — the iron weight of a dreaded suspen- 
 sion, is at once laid upon him, and there left until he discloses or die ! 
 The writer has loved Methodism for many years, and his daily prayer is 
 for its peace and prosperity. In the fear of God, he pronounces this 
 mode of obtaining evidence a corrupt and hateful innovation ; and he 
 cannot find language sufficiently strong to express his grief and abhor- 
 rence, to hear the authors of this innovation still dwelling on the phrase, 
 ' Methodism as it is ! ' Further — we most deliberately aver, that if this 
 inquisition principle — this liberty to extort evidence by the infliction of 
 sorrows and alarm — this torture — is to be admitted ad libitum into the 
 courts of Methodism — we say to Mr. Walton, as many other Methodists 
 say in this metropolis and the provinces — expulsion from its ranks is a 
 boon ! ! Will Englishmen and English Methodists suffer such a sentence 
 to be executed at the dictation of such a court ? " The whole of this 
 part of the case is well put in a recent publication. 
 *' It is stated that Mr. Walton participated in the ' preparation ' of the 
 
IGO 
 
 Fly Sheets, while there is not a particle of evidence to prove that he had 
 done so intentionally. Though at a loss for proof, the party wish the 
 world to believe, in their letters to their friends, and in reports to which 
 they are giving currency, that the intention is actually proved. In letters 
 that have come under our own notice, all written with a view to preju- 
 dice the public against the excc-llent man, it is stated that Mr. Bunting 
 has proved his point — that Mr. Walton stands convicted — that the Com- 
 mittee are unanimous in their decision — that he will be leniently dealt] 
 with — that he will only be admonished — that a string of questions will be 
 proposed to him, and that if he shall refuse to answer them, the severest 
 discipline will be exercised, &c. And some of these statements have 
 been made in the most cold-blooded way, by one who ought to be placeq 
 on the stool of repentance by jthe side of Judas. 
 
 All that can be said to be proved is, that Mr. Walton wrote a pape* 
 before the publication of the Fiy Sheets — that this paper became known, 
 having been seen lying on his table by Mr. Radcllffe — that no disguise 
 was employed, or fear entertained respecting it — and that Mr. Walton 
 was ignorant at the time of either the existence or contemplated publica- 
 tion of the said Fly Sheets ; but that, afterwards, one of those Fly 
 Sheets contains a half-dozen sentences somewhat like it. How, it is 
 demanded, did these sentences come there? This is the point ; and the 
 judges in effect say, ' We care nothing about the half-dozen sentences, 
 but you must know who is the author of the Fly Sheets, and we will 
 make you tell. And, if not, we will suspend you." 
 
 Was ever anything, v/ith the exception of its tortures, more monstrous 
 in its character practised in the Spanish Inquisition ? Mr. Walton is to 
 have a series of questions proposed to him, to each of which he is to give 
 an explicit answer, — questions put with a view to criminate either himself, 
 or others, or both, — and if be should refuse to answer at the next meet- 
 ing in May, punishment is to be awarded! What does this amount to ? 
 ' We are short of evidence, though we make our boast to the world, that 
 the charge is ' abundantly sustained ;' — we are in want of more ; — our 
 witnesses fail us — will you be so obliging as to turn ' king's evidence,' 
 or at once enter the confessional against yourself? We are anxious to 
 suspend you but cannot ; — we can only proceed, in the present stage of the 
 business, to the gentle work of admonition; — we cannot, having begun the 
 work, retreat with honour; — and we cannot go forward without your per- 
 mission: — like another eminent personage, we are ' in a fix:' — you have 
 he key of knowledge in your keeping j we pray you to open the door. 
 
161 
 
 and allow us to peep behind the scenes. You perceive, we cannot con- 
 demn you, and we are unwilling to pronounce you innocent.' Well 
 might they engage not to publish the evidence ; but the witnesses have 
 not been able to preserve the secret, and what has been given by the 
 judges themselves to The Watchman, of Nov. 29, instead of ' abundantly 
 sustaining,' exhibits still more ' abundantly ' the ' nakedness of the land.' 
 'Abundantly sustained ! ' and yet, not proved. 'Abundantly sustained ! ' 
 and yet waiting in next to hopeless despair — day after day — from one to 
 six, for further evidence — for other documents. 'Abundantly sustained !' 
 and yet humiliatingly imploring the defendant to furnish them with evi- 
 dence against himself. 'Abundantly sustained ! ' and yet unable to 
 criminate — only vested with power to admonish ! 'Abundantly sustained !' 
 and yet compelled, owing to lack of evidence, to hold the rod of threat- 
 ened judgment over the defendant's head ! ! ! Was ever such folly, such 
 ignorance of all judicial proceedings, such wanton cruelty, exhibited in 
 Methodism before ? 
 
 Such is the finding of this court. Partizans may uphold it, but an 
 appeal is confidently made to the sense of justice in the public mind 
 against the entire proceeding from first to last. It dishonours every one 
 that has had a willing part in it. It introduces modes of discipline as 
 futile as they are atrocious. It tends to make ecclesiastical censures and 
 discipline nugatory in their effects upon the public mind. It suggests 
 to those who know how matters are managed by the clique, that 
 there is a greater desire to convict and execute penalties to the utmost 
 rigour of the law in a questionable matter of this kind, than for defaulters 
 and transgressors who may happen to be of their party and to cover 
 whose shameful debts, or to expatriate from their country, private sub- 
 scriptions are solicited from our lay-lords. It strikes at the root of 
 brotherly love and connexional union. It establishes a spiritual police, a 
 ministerial espionage, so that one minister knows not how to confide in 
 his brother minister. It makes confidence a hazard, and suspicion of 
 one's colleagues little short of a duty. It arms with dread power men 
 disposed to abuse it: and it cows the spirit of the timid man, and irri- 
 tates the soul of the bold man, who detest it. It makes it impossible to 
 vindicate before an impartial public what ought to be the most solemn 
 and impressive acts of the body — its acts of discipline, which, instead of 
 presenting the aspect of justice, and the force of law, suggest the tor- 
 tures of persecution, or the envenomed hate of enraged tyranny ; and 
 thus defeat the very end of discipline. It makes discipline a farce, cen- 
 
162 
 
 sure an honour, and expulsion a boon : for a man cannot be disgraced by 
 a conviction obtained by means more disgraceful far than the evil of 
 which he is accused. It is fatal to liberty. It condemns a man on the 
 heaviest indictment upon bare suspicion and surmise. It encourages the 
 worst species of treachery. It fosters anarchy, as it both treads down 
 and perverts law to secure its ends. It is thoroughly anti-christian 
 and anti-methodistic. It marks an era of retrogradation. It allies 
 itself to the worst periods of society. It is despotism. It has its paral- 
 lel in the horrible reign of terror in France, in 1793, when, to use the 
 words of an illustrious writer, there was " a law which would not re- 
 cognise the innocence of those whom it wished to consider guilty ; when 
 suspicion was converted into proof; treachery held up a duty; a revo- 
 lutionary tribunal to apply this code ; the guillotine erected in all the 
 principal towns, and borne about in the smaller ; commissioners of the 
 convention sharing the provinces and the armies, and every where watch- 
 ing, accelerating, or moderating the terrible working of the Dictator- 
 ship. The Convention deliberating and acting, — present every where in 
 its emissaries, maintaining an incessant correspondence with them, inspir- 
 ing, stimulating, punishing, and recalling them, — such was the terrible 
 mechanism of that Dictatorship which is called The Terror." Pro- 
 ceedings laid on such a basis, and carried out by such measures, cannot 
 stand. The judgment of the future will condemn the finding of the 
 court. The Manchester Minor District of Nov., 1848, will, by the 
 historian of Methodism, be characterised as the darkest spot that has 
 dimmed its glorious escutcheon. Posterity will endorse his decision. 
 
 5. Its Episode. The summoning of Messrs. Burdsall and Ever- 
 ett, to give evidence, as is supposed, against their friend, and the publica- 
 tion to the world of resolutions affecting them, before they had so much 
 as heard of them. The letters of Messrs. Everett and Burdsall on these 
 two points are presented as a full exposition of this singular and blun- 
 dering episode : — 
 
 " To the Editor of The Watchman. Dear Sir, — We were not a little 
 surprised to find our names noticed in your number of the 29th ult., in 
 connexion with some official documents respecting the late Manchester 
 Minor District Meeting, and noticed evidently with a view to excite a 
 feeling of prejudice against us : this being the more apparent from the 
 entire omission of the name of the Rev. Nehemiah Curnock, whose 
 absence — though occasioned by indisposition — would have been much less 
 
163 
 
 marked, had he been numbered among the absentees summoned to the 
 meeting". But that does not appear to have suited the purpose of the 
 writer. 
 
 It is more than probable, Sir, that you would not have heard from us 
 on the present occasion, had it not been for the manner in which the 
 thing has been done. The notice to which we refer is as follows: — ' The 
 Rev. John Burdsall and the Rev. James Everett, of York, were sum- 
 moned by the Chairman, but did not appear.' — ' There were also, we 
 understand, other resolutions adopted, calling the attention of the Con- 
 ference to the conduct of certain witnesses summoned to attend the 
 meeting, two of whom sent letters declining to attend.' 
 
 The official document^ and the official information^ must either have 
 been communicated by persons officially connected with the meeting, or 
 by some one, or more, acting under their sanction. Now, it seems some- 
 what strange, that neither of us should have received a single line, official 
 or otherwise, from either chairman or secretary, or other member com- 
 posing the meeting, relative to those ' Resolutions,' involving charges 
 of delinquency against us, to which ' the attention of the Conference ' is 
 to be called, and before whose tribunal we are threatened to be brought. 
 And is it come to this — that Christian ministers are to go to the Public 
 Journals of the day, to learn, for the Jirst time — without the slightest 
 private intimation, the charges which their Christian brethren have con- 
 cocted against them in a private, select meeting, and which they resolve 
 to prefer against them at another tribunal some eight or ten months 
 hence ? Why, the termination of the Manchester meeting is worse than 
 the commencement. Mr. Walton was surprised into his charge before a 
 committee of about sixty or seventy persons. We are surprised into ours 
 before the public ! Is this Christian — Matt, xviii. 15 — 17? Is it bro- 
 therly ? Is it courteous ? Is it decent ? Is it doing to others as we 
 would they should do to us ? 
 
 You, Mr. Editor, are herewith furnished with our replies to the 'sum- 
 mons ' issued from Manchester. Whether our conduct is reprehensible 
 or not, must be decided elswhere ; and when the brethren, who drew up 
 the ' Resolutions,' are pleased to reveal their contents, we are not with- 
 out hope, that we shall have sufficient firmness to meet them, intellectual 
 resources sufficient left to enable us to make a defence, and grace sufficient 
 — should we fail in that defence — to bear, with meekness, any censure 
 our conduct may have merited. 
 
164 
 
 We would just add, that though Doctor Newton is to be viewed offi- 
 cially^ only as ' Chairman ' of the meeting, yet, out of respect to his 
 higher office, he was addressed as President of the Conference. 
 
 James Everett." 
 
 " Mr. Burdsall's reply to the ' summons' was, in substance, as fol- 
 lows — not having kept an exact copy : — 
 
 " York, Nov. 10th, 1848. 
 ' Dear Sir, — I had but little acquaintance with the Rev. D. Walton 
 until he was appointed to labour in the York circuit. But from all I 
 have either seen or known of him^ I have nothing to say of him but what 
 is good ; and that my most sincere wish is, that both myself and every 
 minister of Christ were more like him. And were I to be at the meet- 
 ing to be held at Manchester, nothing but what is good could 7, or would 
 /, say of him to any man, or to any number of men whatsoever. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours truly, — John Burdsall. 
 
 To the Rev. Robert Newton, D.D., Stockport.' " 
 
 " To the Rev. Robert Newton^ D.D.^ President of the Wesleyan Con- 
 ference. Rev. and Honoured Sir, — As a Wesleyan minister, I con- 
 sider myself bound by the laws of the Wesleyan body, and am disposed 
 to obey them. You profess, in your 'summons,' to be ''directed by 
 Thomas P. Bunting, Esq. ;' but as I am not bound to be guided in my 
 decisions and movements by the said Mr. Bunting, or any other, you 
 will oblige me, honoured Sir, by stating the law of the case ; by what 
 law a man like Mr. Bunting is authorised to subpoena a brother, and 
 oblige him to bear witness against a late colleague, both against his will, 
 and against his most cherished sentiments of high honour and generosity? 
 I offer no factious opposition ; I am afraid of the precedent, and wish to 
 be informed. I am ignorant of any law of the kind ; and my ignorance 
 must be my apology. It is not the will of Mr. T. P. Bunting, but the 
 law of Methodism, that must guide me. 
 
 In the next place, Sir, as your notice is based upon the request of Mr. 
 T. P. Bunting, and he, in his letter to me, of the 7th instant, states it 
 to be ' in consequence of a communication received from York,' the 
 
165 
 
 same ' morning,' I wish to know, through you, as the only official 
 organ in the case, — 
 
 1. What the nature of the ' communication' is, said to be ' received 
 from York ; ' and whether sufficient to warrant, in this special case, such 
 a ' summons' from Mr. T. P. Bunting? 
 
 2. Who the party is that makes the ' communication ;' and whether of 
 sufficient integrity and respectability to be attended to ? — I may know the 
 party better than Mr. Bunting. 
 
 3. Whether the party or parties, in York, at whose instigation I am to 
 be sent across the country between one and two hundred miles, will be 
 in Manchester themselves ? 
 
 Pardon, Sir, another trespass on your valuable time. I am summoned 
 as a ''witness.' If I am called to '' ivitness' to the character of Mr. 
 Walton, all I have to say is, I know nothing of him but what is good and 
 praiseworthy. Further I shall not proceed. If I am called to ' witness' 
 to the authorship of the ' Fly Sheets,' I have no answer to give pro or 
 con. My reasons for this are the following : — 
 
 1. I object to answer any questions as to authorship, till a searching 
 inquiry is made into the truth or falsehood of the allegations made in the 
 ' Fly Sheets,' this appearing to me, and for the peace and interests of 
 the body, of greater importance than the enquiry set on foot, which can 
 only affect the individual. I commit myself neither to their truth nor 
 falsehood. 
 
 2. I object to the manner in which the present enquiry was begun ; 
 being, in my humble view, unbrotherly, uncourteous, and unscriptural — 
 Matt, xviii. 15 — 17 ; and will not, therefore, so far as law will lend me 
 aid, assist, and abet it in its progress. 
 
 3. I objected, in companionship with 256 Christian ministers, to sign 
 the ' Declaration,' of which the present inquiry, in my judgment, is ' part 
 and parcel,' both that and the commencement of the present inquiry, 
 being placed in the un-English form of leading a man to criminate 
 himself. 
 
 With all respect, honoured Sir, both for yourself and your high 
 office, 
 
 I am, yours, most truly, — James Everett. 
 York, Nov. 10, 1848. 
 
 To the queries in the last letter no reply has been given, though sought 
 from the dis-penser of Wesleyan Law ; and to neither of us, as stated be- 
 
1G6 
 
 fore, has the charge been forwarded, though certainly much more deeply 
 interested in it, and as much entitled to it, as a public journal. 
 
 We have no wish to provoke controversy on the occasion ; but we con- 
 sider it as due to ourselves, to furnish the public, whose attention has 
 been drawn to it through your journal, with some of the reasons which 
 have influenced our conduct in the affair. Had we been summoned as 
 delinquents^ we should have deemed it imperative : — as witnesses, — and 
 under the peculiar circumstance named, as well as out of our districts, 
 we consider it optional ; and are still of opinion, that where there is no 
 law, there is no transgression. — James Everett 
 
 By giving this paper a place in your journal, you will oblige, 
 
 \ours, most truly, 
 
 John Bordsall, 
 " York. Dec. 4. 184S." James Everett." 
 
 The public is desired to peruse this Vindication of the Fly Sheets, 
 and then to say whether the Fly Sheets are a collection of wholesale 
 slander and lies. Is it a slander, is it a lie, as stated in the Fly Sheets, 
 
 1. That Doctor Bunting has not squared his conduct by, and lived 
 fully up to, his own rules of 1828? 
 
 2. That the system of Location is fraught with innumerable evils, and 
 that it is incompatible with Mr. Wesley's designs in Methodism ? 
 
 3. That the Four Missionary Secretaries have cost the funds far on to 
 two thousand pounds per annum, and that the item for furniture, as 
 copied from the Missionary Reports, is not fair, moderate, and proper ? 
 
 4. That one of the Missionary Secretaries has been in the habit of 
 travelling in first class carriages, and stopping at head inns, while his 
 brethren, on laborious deputations, have satisfied themselves with second- 
 class, and even third-class carriages, to save the funds, and taken up their 
 abode with the friends ? 
 
 5. That Doctor Bunting did receive £2,000. at Birmingham, which 
 another preacher had solicited from different hands, and that the donors 
 are always on our Connexional Committees, where they exercise a potent 
 influence over the body ? 
 
 6. That the Lay Agent in the Mission House was not openly and 
 honourably approved by Conference, before he was installed into office ? 
 
167 
 
 7. That the Centralization system, though '^astifiahle to a certain ex- 
 tent, has been abused, and has engendered a lust of power ? 
 
 8. That the London District has usurped an unjustifiable and hazard- 
 ous control over other Districts, in consequence of the Centralization 
 system ? 
 
 9. That Partiality has been manifested by the ruling powers, they not 
 having attended to Mr. Wesley's dying request ? 
 
 10. That the tabular specimen of partiality, taken from the Minutes of 
 Conference, is to be found in the pages of such legal document ? 
 
 11. That all the Elections have not been based on broad, liberal 
 principles, and hence some of the most valuable and able men in the body, 
 clerical and lay, are excluded ? 
 
 12. That false arguments have been employed to assist the cause of 
 favouritism ? 
 
 13. That some men have been cashiered for contracting debts, while 
 others, who have contracted debts to a greater amount have been honoured 
 with office in consequence of their belonging to the ruling party ? 
 
 14. That any thing in the shape of Extravagance has appeared ? 
 
 15. That Secularization has been one of the consequences of location 
 and centralization ? 
 
 16. That it is not scriptural, just, and proper for a man to resign his 
 call to the ApostlesJdp for a Clerkship ? 
 
 17. That Located Seculars are not as useful and popular out of the 
 christian pulpit, as if in the regular work ? 
 
 18. That the Presidential Chair has, till lately, been held up by 
 Church and State considerations ? 
 
 19 That Re-elections to the Presidency, of the same person, are to be 
 viewed as an act of injustice towards others equally eligible, who have 
 never yet had the honour ? 
 
 20. That unworthy motives have prompted, or unworthy arguments 
 been employed, to secure party men for the chair ? 
 
 21. That the P/«(/brm does exercise a mischievous influence on the 
 liberties and comforts of the brethren, and that its elections are employed 
 for party purposes ? 
 
 22. That the Connexional Committees have been generally filled by 
 the friends of Doctor Bunting, exclusive of others, equally eligible ? 
 
 23. That Partial Elections are unsatisfactory, and ought not to be 
 preferred to those effected by ballot ? 
 
168 
 
 24. That Packed Committees are not a blessing to the many, though 
 a gratification to the few ? 
 
 25. That the Nomination Committee was organized with a view to 
 accomplish the purposes of the ruling party ? 
 
 26. That what is said and done in the Stationing Committee is fre- 
 quently prejudicial to character, and does not accord with the principles 
 of candour, impartiality, and justice? 
 
 27. That there have been attempts to shield moral delinquency in one 
 case, and treat minor faults with the utmost rigour in others ? 
 
 28. That there have been attempts to enact Laws for party purposes, 
 at the close of the Conference, when nearly the whole of the brethren, 
 save the ruling party, have left? 
 
 29. That Mr. C. Prest, a junior, has been loaded with fourteen Con- 
 nexional honours^ while others, twice and thrice his standing in the body, 
 with superior talent and equal piety, have had none? 
 
 30. That the Deputation list exhibited constant examples of favour- 
 itism ? 
 
 31. That wealthy Laymen have been employed to intimidate the 
 preachers, and influence them in their proceedings ? 
 
 32. That the most rigid Economy has not been preserved ? 
 
 33. That Doctor Bunting has frequently stepped beyond the bounds 
 of common prudence on the election of a President ? 
 
 34. That the Missionary Secretaries do not live in the constant spirit 
 of their ministerial calling and work? 
 
 35. That it it is not proper that the work of God should be impeded, 
 that young men should remain in the Institution the full time allotted to 
 them ? 
 
 36. That it is not proper that men should be transferred from the 
 pulpit to the counting-house^ and that curates ought not to be engaged to 
 discharge their ministerial duties ? 
 
 37. That when the core of a disease is pointed out, it is not ' wicked' 
 to say that it ought to be cured ? 
 
 38. That the Opinions afloat, on the subject of misrule, are strong 
 signs of dissatisfaction with the present state of things ? and, 
 
 39. That Doctor Newton, above all others, ought not to have been the 
 first to step forward to object to Mr. Caughey ? 
 
 Who are the enemies of Methodism ? They who support this admin- 
 istration, or they who seek the annihilation of these evils ? 
 
169 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON A RULE ENACTED BY THE 
 CONFERENCE OF 1835.* 
 
 Perhaps there is not in the New Testament, an injunction more plain 
 and explicit than the one contained in Matt, xviii. 15 — 17; — " If thy 
 brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee 
 and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that 
 in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 
 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he 
 neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a 
 publican." Such is the order of dealing with a brother who offends — 
 such is the discipline which the Son of God requires in his church ; 
 and the wisdom and kindness so conspicuous in it, are worthy of Him. 
 To depart from this order — to supersede this discipline — by enactments 
 and proceedings of our own — must needs be a great offence against the 
 " crown and dignity" of King Messiah, the supreme Lawgiver in heaven 
 and on earth. 
 
 It is of some importance to our purpose, to consider the frequent, the 
 extended, the earnest manner in which this command of the Lord Jesus 
 is insisted upon in the standard writings of the Wesleyan Connexion. 
 Wesley has an elaborate and most important note on this passage in Mat- 
 thew ; part of it we transcribe ; — 
 
 '^ If any do any thing amiss, of which thou art an eye or ear witness, 
 thus saith the Lord — If thy brother — any who is a member of the same 
 religious community — sin against thee^ 1. Go and reprove him — if it 
 may be in person ; if that cannot so well be done, by thy messenger ; or 
 in writing. Observe, Our Lord gives no liberty to omit this ; 
 
 * Several of the arguments contained in these Ohservatious have been, iu part, anticipated 
 in the former pages of this work. Such, however, is the importance of the subject, that a little 
 repetition will not be amiss. On a question like this, " line' upon line, and precejst upon pre- 
 cept ; here a little, and there a little ; hei-e much, and there much ;' may be of service, especially 
 in the case of those brethren who are prone to claim the attribute of infallibility for the acts of 
 a Conference majority. 
 
 M 
 
170 
 
 OU TO EXCHANGE IT FOR. EITHER OF THE FOLLOWING STEPS. If thlS 
 
 do not succeed, 2. Take with thee one or tivo more — Men whom he esteems 
 or loves, who may then confirm what thou sayest ; and afterwards, if 
 need require, bear witness of what was spoken. If even this does not 
 succeed, then, and not before, 3. Tell it to the elders of the Church 
 — lay the whole matter open before those who watch over your's and his 
 soul. If all this avail not, have no further intercourse with him, only 
 such as thou hast with heathens. Can any thing be plainer ? Christ 
 does here as expressly command all Christians, who see a brother do 
 evil, to take this way, not another, and to take these steps, in this 
 ORDER, as he does to honour their father and mother." And then, 
 transcribing a paragraph from Doddridge, Wesley proceeds to mourn over 
 the departures from this rule in '' private" and " public" affairs — 
 in Protestant as well as in Popish countries ; and, using the words of 
 Doddridge, says, " Let us earnestly pray that this dishonour to the 
 Christian name may be wiped away, and that common humanity may not, 
 with such solemn mockery, be destroyed in the name of the Lord.'' 
 
 If we take as our guide this comment of the seraphic-minded Wesley, 
 nothing remains but to place those who contravene our blessed Lord's 
 enactment, among the men on whom the guilt of hypocrisy, of impiety, 
 and of inhumanity, assuredly falls. 
 
 Among the sermons of Wesley, "published in four volumes, in the 
 year 1771 ; and to which reference is made in the Trust Deeds of the 
 Methodist Chapels, as constituting, with Mr. Wesley's Notes on the New 
 Testament, the standard doctrines of the Methodist Connexion ;" is one 
 entitled, " The Cure of Evil Speaking," founded upon the afore- 
 said text, Matt, xviii. 15 — 17. This sermon was a favourite with Wesley, 
 and he ordered it to be "read in every society." It is a dignified 
 specimen of practical preaching. We transcribe from it, as incontro- 
 vertibly for our purpose, the following sentences: — 
 
 " It should be well observed, that not only this (i. e., communicating 
 personally with an offending brother) is a step which our Lord absolutely 
 commands us to take, but that he commands us to take this step first, 
 before we attempt any other. No alternative it allowed, no 
 CHOICE of any thing ELSE. This is the way, walk thou in it. It is 
 true he enjoins us, if need require, to take two other steps ; but they are 
 to be taken successively, after this step, and neither of them before it." 
 
 And so in reference to the second step, i. e., the taking with us one or 
 two more^ it is said, " With regard to this, as well as the preceding rule. 
 
171 
 
 we may observo, that our Lord gives us no choice, leaves us no alterna- 
 tive, but expressly commands us to do this and nothing else in the place 
 of it. lie likewise directs us when — -neither sooner nor later — namely, 
 AFTER we have taken the first, and before we take the third step/' 
 So great is tlie stress laid upon this order of discipline, that, speaking of 
 those who deviate from it, it is added, '' Vv^e are sinners against God, 
 and asrainst our neighbour: and how fairly soever we may colour it, yet 
 if we have any conscience, our sin Vv^ill find us out, and bring a burden 
 upon our soul." 
 
 The Twelve Rules of a Helper^ used to be of great importance in 
 Methodism ; and an assent to them is still required from all candidates 
 for the ministry. The sixth of these Rules is in these words, " Speak 
 evil of no one ; else your word especially would eat as doth a canker. 
 Keep your thoughts within your own breast, till you come to the person 
 concerned." 
 
 In harmony with these enlightened and evangelical sentiments, it was 
 enacted by the Conference of 1792, that " Whenever the Chairman (of 
 a District) has received any complaint, against a preacher, either from 
 the preachers or the people, he shall send an exact account of the com- 
 plaint in writing, to the person accused, with the name of the accuser or 
 accusers, before he calls a meeting of the District Committee, to exa- 
 mine into the charge." Whether attempts had been made to break down, 
 or to evade this equitable provision, we know not ; but in 1807, it was 
 again enacted, " Let us enforce our existing rules — that all charges 
 shall be previously announced, personally or in writing, to the Brother 
 against whom they are directed." 
 
 Every one M'ho reads and considers these extracts — these ancient land- 
 marks of Wesleyan Methodism — must at once perceive, that it is in the 
 highest degree unchristian, and wholly anti- wesleyan, to bring accusations 
 affecting the moral, christian, or ministerial character of a brother, for 
 the FIRST time, in presence of a District Meeting, or of a Conference. 
 But what then are we to say to that extraordinary decree passed by the 
 Sheffield Conference, in the year 1835 — found at page 112 of the Minutes 
 of that year, and at page 549 of the octavo edition ? What can we say, 
 but that it is an enactment which repeals some of the wisest and most 
 ancient of Conference Rules — is utterly subversive of the standard writ- 
 ings of the Connexion — pours contempt on the name and memory of 
 Wesley — and, what is far worse, withstands, in the most direct manner, 
 an absolute command of the Son of God ! ! If such a censure be re- 
 
172 
 
 garded as unfounded or severe, it can only be, by those who have never 
 considered the provisions of the law in question. 
 
 1. We have seen that in the judgment of the excellent Wesley, as re- 
 corded in the standard waitings of the Connexion, to deviate from the 
 order prescribed by the Blessed Jesus — to mention the fault of a brother 
 in presence of the church, before it has been mentioned to that brother 
 in private — is to commit sin ; sin against the law and authority of the 
 King of kings. But the Rule of 1835 declares, " That not only the 
 Conference, but all its District Committees, whether ordinary or special, 
 possess the undoubted right of instituting, in their official and collec- 
 tive character, any enquiry or investigation, which they may deem ex- 
 pedient, into the moral, christian, or ministerial conduct of the preachers 
 under their care." The Chairman is especially invested with this right 
 to do wrong — this right to set aside the Notes and Sermons of Wesley — 
 and the explicit injunctions of the Master whom Wesley loved • for, 
 according to this rule, ^' the Chairman has the official right of origina- 
 ting such enquiries, if he think necessary." 
 
 2. The Rule passed in 1792, and re-enacted in 1807, provided that 
 " ALL charges shall be previously announced, personally or in writing, 
 to the brother against whom they are directed." But the Conference of 
 1807 — and the Conference of 1835 — differed widely in the spirit by 
 which they were governed, and in the objects which they pursued. The 
 latter decreed, that the District Meetings and Conferences have the right 
 to institute and originate these enquiries and investigations, " even 
 although NO formal or regular accusation may have been previously an- 
 nounced on the part of any individual." We presume a formal and 
 regular accusation, must, on New Testament — on Wesleyan principles, 
 require attention to the two previous steps the text in Matthew enjoins. 
 Such regular accusation is, in this hateful rule, dispensed with in so many 
 words ! ! It is wonderful ! It is alarming ! ! In our civil courts, a 
 man cannot be brought to trial for the recovery of a paltry debt, but he 
 must have fourteen days' notice of the trial ; "in order," says Black- 
 stone, " to prevent surprise." But in the Wesleyan courts, as constitu- 
 ted by this rule, an enquiry affecting the ministerial existence of a bro- 
 ther, may be commenced a V instant — all preliminaries of personal inter- 
 course, or formal notice, being dispensed with, in express terms. A man 
 may enter a District Meeting or a Conference, imagining himself a regu- 
 lar member of its courts, and in a moment find himself in the position of 
 a culprit. lie may be in daily intercourse with his colleague in the 
 
 I 
 
173 
 
 ministry — that colleague may not once breathe a complaint, until they 
 meet in the presence of 30 or 40 of their brethren — and that colleague 
 may then bring forward the gravest accusations — and by this rule he is 
 protected and justified in so doing! 
 
 3. Lest it should be supposed that these instanter enquiries and in- 
 vestigations are limited to '' minor faults," and " objectionable peculiari- 
 ties," to use the lana^uage of Mr. Grindrod, in his Compendium, the 
 right to institute them is affirmed to extend to whatever may affect " tiie 
 moral, christian, or ministerial conduct of the preachers under their 
 care." This clause of the rule is as comprehensive as it is tyrannic. 
 
 4. And, lest it should be imagined that these enquiries and investiga- 
 tions without previous notice, are inoperative, a species of verbal gladia- 
 torship with no practical result, these several courts are asserted to have 
 the undoubted right of " coming to such decisions thereupon, as, to 
 them, may seem most conformable to the New Testament." To the 
 New Tentament ! — think of these words, and these proceedings, and then 
 read Matt, xviii. 15—17. 
 
 5. But suppose some brother should plead the hardship of being taken 
 by surprise in the accusations brought against him — suppose he should 
 think certain questions proposed to him to be impertinent and insulting, 
 and decline to answer them — suppose that he decline, by answering cer- 
 tain questions, to become the betrayer and accuser of his v/ife, or of his 
 child, or of his friend, or of himself — suppose he should be an old nian, 
 and plead from under hoary locks the Methodism he joined in his youth 
 — the standard writings he had covenanted to maintain — the example and 
 solemn admonitions of the apostolic Wesley — the laws which goverjied 
 the body until 1835 — and above all, the command of the Great Head of 
 the Church himself! ! — what then ? The probability of such demurer 
 was foreseen, and provided for by a process as summary as it is extra- 
 ordinary — the brother who makes it, forfeits his standing as a minister 
 by the very act ! ! For by this execrable statute, it is provided that '"''any 
 preacher, refusing to submit to this friendly* examination, shall be con- 
 sidered as, ipso facto^ incurring the penalty of supension ! ! " The Writ 
 de hccretico comhurendo — the statute of six articles — the bull unigenitus — 
 and this Conference Rule of 1835, as ecclesiastical edicts, certainly rank 
 in one category of anti-christian despotism and cruelty ! 
 
 6. It is not without a pang of humiliation and grief that we further 
 remark, that the despotism and severity which breathe in this Conference 
 
 * FkiendlyI — "His ironls weix softer than oil, yet were tlwjj dravn siconls." Psalm Iv. 2]. 
 
174 
 
 Rule, revolting though they be, are not so revolting as the disengenu- 
 ousness and falsehood it so unhappily exemplifies. Of course we speak of 
 the Law itself, as it now stands in the Minutes — the Statute Book of 
 Methodism : of the spirit and motives of the men by whom it was pre- 
 pared, God alone is judge. 
 
 (1.) The preamble to the law is in these words, "Is it expedient, 
 on account of recent occurrences, to RE-assert, by Declaratory Reso- 
 lutions, any of our rules or usages^ which individuals have attempted to 
 contradict or pervert ? A. "VVe think it is expedient ; and, therefore, 
 the Conference unanimously declares as follows, viz. : — &c." Who 
 would suppose that this was the preamble to the greatest innovation the 
 Connexion had ever witnessed ? Yet such is the fact. To that hour, 
 the standard writings of the body, and the repeated rules of the Confer- 
 ence, forbade the bringing of accusations against a brother, in a District 
 Meeting, or Conference, without formal and regular notice ; and the 
 doctrinal authorities made such a step to be a sin. But the rule in ques- 
 tion, forgetting or despising all previous authority, set aside the necessity 
 for regular notice, and authorized accusations instanter ! — and this is 
 called '''■re-asserting''^ our rules and usages! Even Mr. Grindrod, in 
 his explanation of this rule, given in his Compendium, admits that these 
 accusations without notice, are a departure from the "usual way." 
 
 (2.) The rule asserts that the several courts mentioned have the 
 right of "coming to such decisions thereupon, as to them may seem most 
 conformable to the New Testament." This mention of the New Testa- 
 ment, in the very sentence which sets aside one of the plainest and most 
 important New Testament injunctions, has something in it most offen- 
 sively hypocritical. The New Testament requires that an appeal to the 
 Church, shall be in the third and last resort ; but this rule makes 
 provision for an appeal to the Church in the first resort — and then 
 speaks of acting in conformity, " with the laws of the New Testament ! " 
 How can a " decision " be in comformity with the New Testament, 
 when the first step of the process, is in the teeth of its most solemn 
 injunction? 
 
 (3.) These un-English, and unchristian, and — until the year 1835 — 
 un-Methodistic proceedings, are called " friendly ! " Why should insult 
 be added to cruelty ? Very friendly indeed, to disclose an accusation, 
 true or false, against a brother, for the Jirst time, in the presence of 30, 
 or 40, or, it may be 400 of his brethren in the ministry ! If the man 
 who so acts, be a friend^ what is an enemy? The injury inflicted by such 
 
175 
 
 a step is irreparable ; no defence can entirely wipe away the stain of such 
 a public imputation ; it is a brand for life. We have been informed, 
 that instances have already occurred, under the provisions of this rule, 
 in which a man, guiltless as the laughing babe, has been so stunned, so 
 confounded by the suddenness of the charges brought against him, as to 
 be incapable of making any defence at all ! And this is called " a friendly 
 examination ! " — what cruel mockery ? We know that the man who 
 thus accuses his brother publicly, without previous intercourse, without 
 notice, sins against our Divine Master ; and, if a Wesleyan minister, acts 
 in contempt of the writings, to which, by his ordination vows, he stands 
 solemnly pledged ; but as far as this rule is concerned, he is quite in 
 order — a very honourable and zealous brother ! ! 
 
 (4.) In this rule it is affirmed that " the Chairman has the official 
 right of ORIGINATING such inquiries," — i. e., instant enquiries, enquiries 
 without notice, — " if hp. think necessary, because our rule declares, that 
 the Chairman of each District, in conjunction with his brethren of the 
 Committee, shall be responsible to the Conference for the execution of 
 the LA"ws." Would it be believed, that, up to that hour, the Conference 
 laws expressly forbade such instant enquiries — enquiries without notice ; 
 and that, in Mr. Wesley's Notes, and his Sermons, such a mode of pro- 
 ceeding in complaints against a brother, is denounced as sin f Yet such 
 is the sober fact. 
 
 Such is the Rule of 1835. Whether we are ever to account for these 
 our observations to any earthly tribunal, we know not ; but there is one 
 tribunal at which we must account — and there the makers and promulga- 
 tors of this law must stand, as well as we. In the thought of that 
 solemn tribvmal we affirm, that so much falsehood, so much cruelty, so 
 much anti-christian spirit and practice, we have not witnessed in any 
 ecclesiastical ordinance, out of the bloody pale of the Church of Rome, 
 as in this said Rule ! 
 
 7. The only published defence of this Rule of 1835, which we have 
 seen, is found at page 76 of Mr. Grindrod's Book, entitled " A Com- 
 pendium of the Laws and Regulations of Wesleyan Methodism." Great 
 allowance should be made for the painful circumstances in which that 
 Compendium was prepared ; but inconclusive and absurd reasoning 
 should be rejected, whensoever and by whomsoever advanced. 
 
 (1.) Mr. Grindrod tells us, that the Law of 1792, which enacts 
 that " Whenever the Chairman has received a complaint against a 
 preacher, he shall send an exact account of it in writing to the person 
 
176 
 
 accused, with the name of the accuser or accused, before he calls a 
 meeting of the District to examine into the charge," — and this Rule of 
 1835, which authorizes enquiries and investigations, " even although no 
 formal or regular accusation may have been announced on the part of 
 ANY individual," — do, to use his own terms, " agree and harmonize ! ! " 
 Harmonize ! — yes, as fire and water ; — as hell and heaven ! Is it not 
 plain that they are in flat opposition to each other ? 
 
 (2.) Mr. Grindrod states, the '* Act was intended to perpetuate a 
 usage of noticing such minor faults and objectionable peculiarities^ as did 
 not call for a formal and judicial proceeding ; " but he goes on to inform 
 us, that it was intended, also, "to prevent, in times of general agitation 
 and disturbance, any delinquent preacher from escaping trial from the 
 combinations of a party." To plain people like ourselves, it does appear 
 that a prerogative of enquiry which reaches alike to the peccadillos of life, 
 and to treasons against the community — to " minor faults," and to the 
 highest offences, is sufficiently comprehensive ; and in fact, the rule itself 
 is made to extend to whatever affects " the moral, christian, or minis- 
 terial character " of a preacher. The real enquiry is, does the text 
 (Matt, xviii. 15 — 17^ require that an offending brother be dealt with 
 privately^ before he be accused publicly in the presence of the church ? 
 If it does, we are not at liberty, in " times of agitation and disturbance," 
 or in any other times, to reverse the order, and to commence proceedings 
 publicly before the church ! To set aside the divine command in seasons 
 of pressure and urgency — to be wiser than God — to supercede his au- 
 thority for our expediency, has been the snare of the devil, in all ages ! ! 
 '"''Behold^ to obey is better than sacrifice^ and to hearlien than the fat of 
 rams."" 
 
 (3.) If we understand Mr. Grindrod aright, he mentions with some- 
 thing Hke gratulation, that the " old law (of 1792) has been invariably 
 acted upon, in the trials of preachers, since 1835, as well as prior to that 
 period; no preacher, it is believed, in the intervening years, has been 
 subjected to any judicial censure, either in a District Meeting, or at the 
 bar of the Conference, under the declaratory act." Had such been the 
 fact, it would only have proved how the Wesleyan courts clung to their 
 ancient and equitable practice. But had Mr. Grindrod lived until this 
 time, he would have had a different state of things to report. Already 
 have these instanter accusations been the initiative of many a sad prose- 
 cution. Already have the spirit of distrust, and the most painful heart- 
 burnings, widely spread among brethren, whose success depends upon 
 
177 
 
 loving one another. Already has the unhallowed principle of the rule of 
 1835, descended into our Leader's and Local Preacher's meetings ; and 
 everywhere with tlie most divisive and deplorable consequences. Already 
 this unjust and anti-christian discipline, has kindled a fire which threatens 
 to wrap the palaces and towers of our Zion in fierce and destructive 
 flames. 
 
 Mr. Grindrod, in his vindication of the rule of 1835, is entitled to one 
 commendation ; he admits that these enquiries and investigations, without 
 previous intercourse with the offender, without notice of the complaint 
 intended publicly to be made, is a departure from the " usual way" — a 
 deviation from the " ordinary course of law." He gives the rule indeed, 
 and in his way defends it ; but he could not speak of it as a "re-ASSERTiON" 
 of our ancient laws and usages : No ! that unblushing lie was left for the 
 law itself! 
 
 We cannot conclude these observations on the Rule of 1835, without 
 giving expression to the wish we cherish in reference to it. Would to 
 God, that the very next Conference, it could be totally and for ever 
 repealed ! How we should rejoice, if in the month of May next, every 
 District Meeting in the land would take the matter up, and record against 
 it, with a view to its repeal at the approaching Conference, its solemn 
 judgment. Those parties should be the first in a movement to expunge 
 from our Statute Book, this hideous blot, who were accessory to its 
 enactment: why should they die, and leave such a curse to posterity, and 
 such a blast upon their own reputation ? We verily believe such a defer- 
 ence to evangelical authority as the repeal of this obnoxious edict would 
 show, would be well-pleasing in the sight of the Great Head of the 
 Church — would go far to restore the spirit of mutual confidence, and of 
 brotherly love — and perhaps might be the sign of better days hastening 
 to the Zion we love. 
 
 But while we thus express our wish, it is but due to truth, to record 
 our FEARS. We fear that the reckless, ill-conditioned, and ill-informed 
 spirit which dictated this rule, will maintain it at all hazards, and will be 
 allowed to succeed. We fear that some able pen, some Campbell of the 
 day, will bring under public observation this scandal upon our jurispru- 
 dence, and in so doing make us an offence to the land. We fear that a 
 departure from our doctrinal standard, so palpable and so mischievous, 
 will, ere long, be matter of Chancery cognizance ; and, as the conse- 
 quence, peril, if not forfeit, the entire of our ecclesiastical property. 
 We fear that our societies, perceiving in our discipline such a want of 
 
178 
 
 conformity to the divine word, will lose confidence in the "Wesleyan 
 ministers, as expounders of that word, and seek to other guides to lead 
 them in the right way. Above all we fear, that the Divine Spirit — 
 grieved by an opposition to his holy dictates, so haughtily raised, and so 
 pertinaciously sustained' — will withdraw from us, and leave us blind, 
 powerless, and wretched ! 
 
 Sure we are, that if the Author of the Christian religion be a living 
 Being, the religious community, which retains among its rules of dis- 
 cipline, an enactment like this law of 1835, is doomed; — nor is its over- 
 throw far off ! ! 
 
 May He who, as a people, raised us up, be merciful unto us, and 
 deliver us from all our fears ! 
 
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1.^2 
 
 Table 2,— MISSIONAEY DEPUTATIONS. 
 
 ''^ To the Editor of The Wesleyan. Dear Sir, — In the Nottingham 
 Review, and in the British Banner, has appeared a paragraph entitled, 
 ' Coming Events Shadowed Before ;' meaning, no doubt, a coach start- 
 ing with the morning sun, throwing its long shadow along the road, 
 after which it is hastening, and shortening its length as it proceeds, till 
 the sun is overhead, and ultimately throws the said shadow behind. Be 
 it so. Now for the paragraph. — ' At the late Nottingham Wesleyan 
 District Meeting, it was proposed to recommend to Conference, that the 
 Wesleyan body shall cease to receive government grants for Missionary 
 purposes ; and also that the Missionary Deputation system be discontinued, 
 as the arrangements involve great expense, owing to the unnecessary, 
 and, in some instances, very great distances which the preachers on the 
 deputations have to take. These are two important matters. We regret 
 that they did not pass the meeting. It is well the questions have been 
 mooted. The day will come when they will be taken up, largely dis- 
 cussed, and certainly carried.' 
 
 I may add that, in the Birmingham District Committee, dissatisfaction 
 was expressed with the lay agent employed at the Mission House — also 
 with the needless expense attendant on the support of two theological 
 lecturers — while a suggestion was thrown out on the propriety of remov- 
 ing two of the Missionary Secretaries, it being the opinion of some of 
 the committee that two would be quite sufficient for the Mission House. 
 What do these intimations portend ? The question with every lover of 
 peace and propriety is — Is there any reasonable ground for dissatisfac- 
 tion — for disturbing the present state of things ? Waiving government 
 grants, the subject of two theological lecturers, and two Missionary 
 Secretaries, I made up my mind to test the Deputation department, and 
 at once silence the croakers. In this work, as you, Mr. Editor, may 
 imagine, I was encouraged, from the fact of the Deputation being a 
 Conference measure^ and the selections and appointments being made by 
 men in vi^hose wisdom and impartiality Conference might be supposed to 
 confide. I commenced the work, and drew up, in connexion with a 
 friend, the following table — pen, ink, paper, map, compasses, &c., part 
 before me and part in hand : 
 
183 
 
 Tabular View of the Wesleyan Missionary Deputations, taken 
 FROM the Minutes of Conference of 1^47. 
 
 Districts to which the 
 Deputations are 
 
 sent. 
 
 Kent . . 
 
 Norwich . 
 
 Oxford. . 
 Devouporl 
 Corn wall . 
 
 Bristol. . 
 
 Macclestield 
 
 MiUicli ester 
 
 Leeds . 
 York . . 
 
 Newcastle. 
 Carlisle 
 Scotland . 
 
 Circuits from which 
 they are taken. 
 
 IS 
 
 f Bristol . 
 '■ Exeter 
 [Clieltenham 
 i Bradford, Yorl^ 
 ( Camborne 
 j Leeds . . 
 1 Sheffield . 
 f London . 
 1 Nottingham 
 f London . 
 ^ Huddersiield 
 ( Newcastle 
 -| Stockport 
 [ Truro . 
 ;\raid stone . 
 [ Yarmouth 
 ^ London . 
 ( Dover . . 
 London . . 
 Aberdeen . 
 [ Truro . . 
 J Louth . . 
 [ London . 
 f Rochester 
 i Sheffield . 
 
 London . 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 Paris . . 
 
 Xo. 
 of 
 
 28 
 
 Probable 
 
 distance to 
 
 and fro. 
 
 32 
 
 jNIiles. 
 
 350 
 •470 
 4U0 
 450 
 (i20 
 330 
 250 
 400 
 500 
 1500 
 
 CuSO 
 
 580 
 290 
 280 
 420 
 500 
 340 
 480 
 740 
 (iOO 
 820 
 320 
 
 1110 
 700 
 200 
 780 
 5«0 
 
 1300 
 
 Total 
 distance. 
 
 Miles. 
 } 820 
 
 1470 
 
 } 580 
 } 900 
 
 [2180 
 
 1 1150 
 
 ) 
 420 
 
 [l320 
 
 740 
 (iOO 
 
 2250 
 
 } 900 
 
 2000 
 
 10,050 
 
 Looking over my calculations of mileage and of mew, to say nothing of 
 expense^ I found myself among the complainants. Alas I how soon we 
 shift sides, when truth peers in our face. Observe — 
 
 1. That the distances are given from the usual route taken by travel- 
 lers in going from place to place. 
 
 2. That the said distances are only given approximately, and may, 
 therefore, be a trifle in or over. 
 
 3. That the act of travelling from place to place in the several districts, 
 very often considerable, is not included. 
 
181 
 
 4. That, as to Scotland, the distance is given to and from Edinburgh, 
 which is considerably within the limits of the Deputation. 
 
 5. That in each case the distance is double, as the same ground would 
 have to be gone over on returning home, and the same expense paid, un- 
 less, in this age of invention, some new mode of travelHng had been hit 
 upon, or the directors and coach proprietors had furnished the gentle- 
 men with a ' cheap trip.' 
 
 6. That the Deputation list, in the minutes of Conference, includes 
 78 preachers in all, from which I have selected 32 — confessedly the 
 strongest cases, though others are to be found too nearly resembling them 
 — which 32, however, it will be seen, were destined — or doomed, if you 
 will — to travel, on the lowest calculation, upwards of 16,000 miles, aver- 
 aging 500 miles per man, exclusive of journeys from place to place in the 
 several widely extended districts. 
 
 7. That the missionary secretaries have, in making up the Deputation 
 list, had no regard in their several arrangements to economy ; from the 
 facts that, in one case, they start from Truro for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 and pass by Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, and York ; in a second, start at Huddersfield for Cornwall, and 
 pass by Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, and Exeter; 
 in a third, start from Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Bristol, and pass by 
 York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, and Bir- 
 mingham ; and so of the others, one going from Maidstone to Maccles- 
 field, and another from Rochester to Carlisle. 
 
 8. That the whole of the 78 preachers, finding that 32 of them had 
 been appointed to travel 16,000 miles, and allowing only 9,000 for the 
 46 remaining, must have compassed ground equal in extent to the earth 
 itself, the circumference of the globe under the equator being only 
 24,951 miles. 
 
 Now, Sir, I ask with candour, though honestly, whether two-thirds of 
 the expense might not have been saved by employing the excellent men 
 included in the list nearer Jiome^ and men equally efficient at the places 
 more contiguous to their own stations ? Whatever may become of the 
 question which goes to cut down the number of secretaries to the st;>ff 
 employed by other societies, there can be little doubt that a change is 
 necessary either in men or measures. 
 
 I have not touched on ihe favouritism which is apparent in an analvsis 
 of Missionary Deputations, and which is a subject of complaint among 
 both preachers and people. This, if I am rightly informed, was noticed 
 
185 
 
 at a district meeting, where an analysis was given for the last six years, 
 and which, on looking at the suhject, I find to be as follows : — 17 have 
 been appointed twice; 9, thrice ; 15, four times; 15, five times; and 
 31, six times. Is this wise in a body eminently one ? Is it just in refer- 
 ence to the talented, excellent men, who are branded before the Method- 
 ist pubHc by being systematically excluded? Is it useful to the Mission- 
 <\VY funds ? Is it kind to the people^ who are driven to invite the men so 
 ' passed by,' and compelled to take others whom they do not want, or 
 give offence ? Is it creditable to the men who manifest such partiality in 
 their selections? I leave the subject, only regretting that I have found 
 the complaint too well grounded ; and heartily pray for either a change 
 in the leading men, or more wise and equitable measures. 
 
 A Wesleyan Preacher." 
 
 Table 3,— MISSION-HOUSE MANAGEMENT. 
 
 " To the Editor of The Wesleijan. Sir,— Within the last few days, 
 I have been favoured with a copy of the report of the Wesleyan Method- 
 ist Missionary Society, for the year ending April, 1848. It is certainly 
 a most interesting document, but it is painful to learn from a perusal of 
 it, that several important stations cannot have the supply their case re- 
 quires, for want of more adequate means for carrying on our foreign 
 work, and hence we read in connexion with the name of several stations, 
 * one wanted.' 
 
 In looking over the items of expense connected with the Mission- House 
 establishment, Centenary Ilall, to which I have had my attention directed, 
 I am astonished at the sums paid to support that establishment ; and as a 
 subscriber, with not a few others who have spoken on this subject, I am 
 of opinion, that the time is come when the whole of that expenditure 
 should he brought by the committee under a careful revision, with a view 
 
186 
 
 to necessary retrenchments.* On the last page of the report, for 1848, 
 I find the following items of expenditure : — 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 For printing reports, missionary notices, quarterly papers, 
 collectors' and secretaries' books, missionary papers, 
 
 boxes, &c., in two items 7082 2 7 
 
 Salaries for four secretaries « . . . 723 1 1 
 
 Salaries of accountants, clerks, and assistants in the 
 
 office 831 4 1 
 
 Salary and travelling expenses of travelling agent . . . . 377 14 1 
 Coals, candles, taxes, rates, insurance, &:c., for the houses 
 of the four secretaries, and rent of the secretaries' 
 
 houses 528 13 7 
 
 Taxes, rates, insurance, &c., for the Centenary Hall .. 335 4 8 
 
 Stationery and account books 107 13 
 
 Travelling and other expenses of missionary candidates . . 12 9 10 
 Carriage, porterage, shipping, and miscellaneous travel- 
 ling expenses, &c , 355 12 6 
 
 Eepairs of secretaries' houses, and additional furniture. . 104 19 
 
 £10,458 13 5 
 
 If I am right in my calculations this is a tremendous sum. Is it possi- 
 ble, that such an expenditure is absolutely necessary to carry on effectu- 
 ally the foreign work ? The treasurers of this fund ought certainly, at 
 the very next meeting of the general Missionary Committee in Hull, to 
 give some explanation as to the necessity for such an expenditure. And 
 it is to be hoped, that some member of the committee will call for some 
 such explanation as may satisfy the subscribers. I am not a member of 
 the committee myself, and if I were, probably I should not have reason 
 to propose a question which might seem to imply a want of confidence, 
 and by the secretaries and others, who are in the secret, it might be 
 
 * We have seen it stated on competent authority, that the following is the per centage expen- 
 diture of the four great Missionary Societies upon their respective incomes. The London 
 Missionaiy Society expends 5 per cent.; the Baptist, 7 per cent. ; whilst it is left for the Ai-isto- 
 cratic State-Churcli Missionaiy Society, and the humble Wesleyan Methodist Missionai7 Society, 
 to exceed the magnilicent expenditm-e of 10 per cent. Ten pounds for every Hundred contri- 
 buted, for nothing but mere oil to make the machinery woi-k glibly ! No wonder that a cog 
 wheel should now and then slip out of gearing, through the excessive application of the lubricat- 
 ing fluid; 
 
187 
 
 regarded as an ungracious act. I have been, in years past, occasionally 
 present at the committee, when its transactions have been laid before the 
 meeting, but pray, what man is the wiser for being present ? Can he 
 answer one question regarding these items of expenditure ? Certainly 
 not. It may be said, are gentlemen not challenged to ask any question ? 
 It may have been so, but who are prepared to merit the frowns of men 
 such as have come down upon certain brethren who had the temerity to 
 question the propriety of their proceedings ? I am not willing to indulge 
 in any uncharitable feeling towards the men in office ; perhaps others, 
 were they allowed to remain as long as any of them have done, might 
 act on the same principle. But I think, as in every District Meeting 
 I have witnessed, there has beeen a strict investigation of the local 
 expenses, so there ought to be in the general committee ; for, if not, 
 pray of what manner of use is it to read over the mere dry details of 
 minor committees on matters in which I believe few that attend have any 
 particular interest ? It becomes the committee this very next Conference 
 to ask — can the expenditure at home be reduced ? Can the establishment 
 be efficiently worked by fewer secretaries, and clerks, and agents of one 
 class and another ? And v^hether the time is not yet come when there 
 ought to be some change, at least, in the officers of that establishment ? 
 They may be said to be men of talent, but are they men of business ? 
 Might not the work be accomplished with fewer hands, and as efficiently ? 
 Many, very many, believe it might ; nor, in my opinion, will the Con- 
 nexion be satisfied till the whole matter of expenditure be thoroughly 
 sifted. Let the matter be brought out, as is the business of all great 
 trading communities, and let every subscriber to this great concern, 
 have what he has a right to expect, and the cause will be supported 
 with a benevolence and economy which will do credit to the friends of 
 missions. 
 
 A Subscriber." 
 
 "July Jst, 184^." 
 
188 
 
 " REMARKS ON THE FLY SHEETS ; 
 
 In a Letter to a Wesleyan." 
 
 As these sheets were passing through the press, there appeared on the 
 cover of the Wesley Banner for March, the subjoined announcement : — 
 
 *' Remarks on the Fly Sheets ; in a Letter to a Wesleyan." " ' The 
 Fly Sheets must be put down !' but they can only be put down by being 
 answered.'' — Introduction. 
 
 " This is not ' a reprint,' as the Wesleyan Times has opined it ' will 
 be,' but an original reply ^ embodying, in copious extracts, the pith of the 
 Fly Sheets, which it answers." 
 
 This Letter to a Wesleyan breaks no bones. If it would not add to 
 the amount of our printer's bill we should be tempted to take the hint 
 thrown out in the Wesleyan Times, and append every word of it to these 
 pages, as corroborative evidence of the truth of many of the statements 
 contained in the Fly Sheets. We have it on the best authority, (for our 
 ears are open,) that the Reverend John Wesley Thomas claims, among 
 his friends, the credit of authorship. We entertain not the slightest 
 doubt that the honour, such as it is, may be justly awarded to him. The 
 bantling filiates itself; the child is like its father. The work, in short, 
 (to employ a somewhat popular phrase,) may be said to be the " embodi- 
 ment " of himself. The Rev. Gentleman holds the distinguished post 
 of Merryandrew and caricaturist in ordinary to the Wesleyan Methodist 
 Conference ; and in this " Original Reply," it is very m.anift^st that the 
 pencil of the caricaturist and the wand of the harlequin, are the weapons 
 he has chiefly employed. He invariably seizes on the weak points of the 
 Fly Sheets, and endeavours to turn them into ridicule, — a feat which 
 requires no extraordinary genius to accomplish, as the most solemn 
 subjects may be made easy matter of ridicule. We presume the Rev. 
 Gentleman is sufficiently versed in controversial theology to know, that 
 ridicule is no argument, or the truths of the Bible would long ago have 
 been demolished, — ridicule having been, in ail ages, the favourite weapon 
 of men more remarkable for profane wit than for sober logic. Jle never 
 
189 
 
 once grapples with the arguments. Not one of the arguments employed 
 by the Fly Sheet Writers has he adduced ; still less has he examined, 
 discussed, or annihilated them. lie well calls his Letter " An Original 
 Reply;" for, truly, we never before met with such a reply. Of the 
 thirteen arguments against Location, he has not noticed one. Of the 
 fourteen closely printed pages in which the evils of Centralization are 
 particularly pointed out, he has not noticed one single line, excepting a 
 concession made by the writers of the Fly Sheets. But, independently 
 of two quotations, — one of which does not bear on the subject, — he dis- 
 misses the whole in half-a-dozen lines. His is, indeed, " An Original 
 Reply." On the heavy home expenditure of our Mission-House he is 
 altogether silent ; for the single paragraph on " Missionary Affairs," in 
 his Letter, page 18, cannot be said to touch the question. And so of the 
 Re-election of Presidents, which is largely argued in No. 2 of the Fly 
 Sheets. In this way he proceeds throughout his Letter, — turning into 
 ridicule what he conceives to be weak points, but carefully avoiding all 
 arguments. He reminds us of an exceedingly clever man, who got 
 through the whole of Euclid in one day, — a tough job, certainly, and 
 which his friends could scarcely credit, till he informed them that he had 
 skipt all the As and Bs, all the diagrams of angles and triangles and the 
 like, and thus managed to accomplish his otherwise hopeless task. 
 
 This is the second attempt at a reply. If a third, and on its ftiilure, 
 a fourth, be announced, — supposing it to be worthy of its predecessors, — 
 it will, we presume, be the last ; on the principle of a descending series 
 in arithmetic, which, in very fev.' steps, reduces the original digit to a 
 cypher. 
 
 \Ye conclude with the following pithy notice of this pamphlet, from 
 the columns of the Wesleyan Times. 
 
 " We agree vvith the writer of the above letter — that the Fly Sheets 
 *can only be put down by being ansv^ered ;' but we think that such replies 
 as he has furnished us with, ''original' though they may be, will not 
 accomplish the desired end. He modestly says, ' The proper answer the 
 writer, to the extent of his ability^ has endeavoured to supply.' His 
 ability seems to be but small, or else he has very much underrated the 
 task to the performance of which he has addressed himself. He pro- 
 fesses, also, to give ' copious extracts, embodying the pith of the Fly 
 Sheets, which it answers!' We warn those who expect to obtain, ' for 
 the small charge of sixpence,' the pith of a series of pamphlets extend- 
 ing beyond one hundred closely printed pages, and an answer to the 
 
190 
 
 grave charges contained in these pages to boot, that they will find them- 
 selves regularly hoaxed. The ' copious extracts ' are contained in two, 
 or at the most three, pages, and consist, for the most part, of detached 
 sentences culled from the most vulnerable parts of the Fly Sheets. The 
 ' pith ' of the arguments he never once attempts to grapple with. He is 
 too wise to run his head against a stone wall. Should the writers of the 
 Fly Sheets think proper to publish a ' popular edition' of their labours 
 to the world, they may safely reprint this 'original reply' at the end of 
 their work. In some essential particulars, indeed, it furnishes ample 
 corroboration of the truth of some of the statements in the Fly Sheets — 
 we allude specially to the remarks on the Stationing Committee, and 
 which has been somewhat roughly denominated by the Fly Sheet writers, 
 ' The Slaughter -House of Ministerial Character.' What the members 
 of that Committee may think of this part of the 'original reply,' we 
 know not; but to us it appeared very much like a '' Jly leaf against the 
 leading members of that Committee ! We were in error in the supposi- 
 tion that the ' reply' would be a reprint of the arguments of our illus- 
 trious cotemporary. This is, indeed, an ' original reply.'' But as an 
 answer to the arguments and allegations contained in the Fly Sheets, it is 
 perfectly ridiculous. Some mouse has been nibbling very industriously 
 the corners of the leaves ; its labours have not even reached the print. 
 Seriously, this razor, like those immortalized by Peter Pindar, was ' not 
 made to shave ! ' If any of our readers inquire with honest Hodge, in 
 his simplicity, ' What was it made for then ? ' we can only reply, in the 
 language put by the poet into the mouth of the thrifty razor-seller — 
 ' Made ! ' quoth the razor-seller, with a smile, ' to sell.' 
 
 1 
 
 1 5» 
 
Just published — Size, 4 feet 4 5y 3 feet 3, 
 
 Gl LBERT'S 
 
 IMPERIAL 
 
 POLITICAL AND PHYSICAL 
 
 FROM THE WORKS OF THE MOST EMINENT BRITISH AND FOREIGN 
 GEOGRAPHERS. 
 
 BY J. & C. WALKER. 
 
 In a nation of such great Historical, Political, and Commercial 
 importance as Great Britain, the possession of good modem Maps is 
 one of the most essential requisites for the educated and commercial 
 classes ; no person is qualified either to understand or discuss the 
 numerous facts and questions which daily arise in this kingdom, 
 unless his mind is well stored with geographical information, and he has 
 about him the facility of reference to such essential keys to knowledge 
 as recently-constructed and authentic Maps. 
 
 Of all the furnishings for the library^, the sitting-room or counting- 
 house — indeed all places of public resort also — the most essential 
 requisite is a new and correct Map of the World ; and next to it in 
 importance is a separate and enlarged Map of Europe. It is the con- 
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 In addition to its Geographical and Physical features (which are 
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 depicted by colours. 
 
 THE PRICES OF THE MAP ARE 
 
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 rollers 
 
 Ditto, mahogany, ditto 17 
 
 In Sheets, very carefully ^n in f? 
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 folded in case J 
 
 M 4 
 
 London : Jamejs Gilbert, 49, Paternoster Row. 
 Exportation Orders ejcecuted on liberal terms. 
 

 Just published, — Size 2 feet 4 hy Zfeet, 
 
 GILBERT^S 
 
 AS DIVIDED AMONG THE TWELVE TRIBES, 
 
 D 
 
 WITH EGYPT, ARABIA PETR/E, ANB THE WILDERNESS 
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 ILLUSTRATING THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Embellished by Steel-plate Engravings of 
 
 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA, 
 THK CRUCIFIXION, 
 
 AND NUMEROUS EMBLEMATICAL DEVICES. 
 BNCRAVEJ) BY J. AND C. WALKER. 
 
 It is felt to be quite unnecessary to dwell on the importance of a 
 Map of the Holy Land, it being acknowledged in all Christian 
 Countries, and by all Christian persons, that a Correct Geographical 
 Delineation of the most sacred and interesting portion of our Globe, 
 tends materially to assist the devout and historical inquirer : the 
 present very superior Map is well calculated, from its beauty, size, 
 and cheapness, to command universal approval. 
 
 Price, in sheets, carefully) n o a 
 and beautifully coloured/ 
 
 Mounted on cloth, co-1 
 loured, and folded in >0 15 
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 Coloured, mounted on! 
 cloth, highly varnished, > 1 
 and fixed on rollers. J 
 
 Ditto mahogany ditto 15 
 
 In Bvo, (270 pages) intended as a Companion to the above Map, 
 bound in cloth, price 3«. 6d, 
 
 A TOPOGRAPHICAL GAZETTEER 
 
 OF 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLV SCRIPTURES DESCRIBED. 
 
THig MONTH IS PUBLISHED, 
 
 A VERY MUCH IMPROVED AND REVISED EDIISON 
 
 OP 
 
 GILBERT'S MAP OF THE WORLD, 
 
 Size, 3 rt. 4 in. Iby 1 ft. 11 in. 
 
 It is with confidence submitted that this Map contains a large 
 mass of valuable information, and is a spirited attempt to 
 delineate the present state of the known world ; all recent dis- 
 coveries and boundaries are carefully attended to. In addition 
 to the Map — Statistical Tables of the chief Products, &c. of the 
 world. Pictorial Plans of the Mountains of each Hemisphere, 
 and Diagrams of its Rivers, (introduced round the margin of 
 the Map,) — it contains the dates of the important discoveries 
 for the last 1000 years, and the distances of the usual routes 
 to the Colonial possessions of Great Britain and other im- 
 portant places. It is also well suited for an 
 
 EMIGRATION MAP OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The price of this extremely useful Map brings it within the 
 reach of all classes of society, and only a very extensive sale 
 will remunerate the proprietor. 
 
 In sheets, carefully coloured, only 3;?. ; in case, folded, 6s. ; 
 mounted on black roller, highly varnished, 105. ; ditto on 
 mahogany rollers, 145. The colouring particularly distinguishes 
 the English Colonies and Dependencies, exhibiting at a glance 
 the extent of this great Empire. 
 
 CRITICISMS. 
 
 " It is clearly executed, and can thus be readily consulted. The other g-eneral 
 information, supplied on a single sheet, is also extreniely useful. The height 
 of the principal mountains, the length of the great rivers, the summary of the 
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 persons." —Literary Gazette. 
 
 " We have hearty commendations to bestow upon Gilbert's Map of the 
 World, which has just been issued at a cheap rate, in a convenient form, and 
 in a style of execution that leaves nothing to be desired. It contains a variety 
 of necessary information, extensive tabidar computations, and the dates of 
 Geographical discoveries."— Cowr^ Journal. 
 
 t» 
 
 L0ND0l5[ : 
 
 Published by James Gilbert, 49, Paternoster Row, 
 of whom may be had all works on Emigration. 
 Orders received by all Booksellers, Stationer^^, and Newsvendors. 
 Agent for Scotland, JoH^ jWI*Combe, Glasgow. 
 
ine ^jhtst iaousanu, price only is. sewed, or 1^. Qd, bound 
 
 WITH 
 
 A very useful Steel-plate Genealogical Chart of the Sovereigns 
 of England, and other Engravings, 
 
 OUTLINES OF ENGLISH HISTORY, 
 
 WITH 
 
 INTERESTING REMARKS ON MANNERS, CUSTOMS, 
 
 ARTS, DRESSES, &c. 
 
 BY HENRY INCE, M.A! 
 
 " A neat and accurate compendium, and written with perspicuity. The 
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 glance, a comprehensive view of the whole." — Aihenaum. 
 
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 "A very useful book for the instruction of youth, being a complete resume 
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 " A well-digested little hook,"— Literary Gazette. 
 
 " A good compendium of our national history, manners, and customs ; it 
 contains the essence of very many volumes." — Sunday School Magazine. 
 
 Also, price 1*. sewed, or, 1*. 6d. bound, with Engravings, 
 A VERY IMPROVED EDITION OF 
 
 OUTLINES OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 BY HENRiY INCE, M.A. 
 
 "Extremely suited for scholars."— Swnday School Magazine. 
 
 " Contains for its size a remarkable quantity|of interesting and well-arranged 
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 Also in 18mo., price Is. sewed, or Is. 6rf. bound, 
 A NEW EDITION OF 
 
 OUTLINES OF FRENCH HISTORYi 
 
 Brought down to 1848, 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF 
 
 Th9 Manners, Customs, Arts, ^c. of the different Periods, 
 BY HENRY INCE, M.A. 
 
 "Mr. Ince is not of those men who speak much without saying anythins • 
 he says much in a few words."— i^rencA Paper. 
 
 LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, 
 
 By JAMES GILBERT, 49, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 Sold to Order by Booksellers, Stationers, &c. 
 
>MiiMtliiiM:irimMMiititiiMiiiiiiiiit(w£^/7'r*>-C^Xi^ - /„ • .v. », .n i ,i, ^-w i 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01013 5202 
 
 m- 
 
 it^^^^: 
 
 
 ^^•mmoii' 
 
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 jaiisaBus.