on this disclosure, Friends were reminded that our first gathered members had sat down in silence, on meeting together, from the peculiar circumstance of having left the Established, and all other stated, ministry, and set up none of their own but it was evident that, thus circumstanced, they did commonly rise and minister spontaneously one to the others, out of that they had in them (as well as 'prophesy' by occasional impulses in spirit); and did advise and teach one another that which they believed to be the way of Truth, as they had learned it for themselves and were, moreover, much more than at present, in the spirit of the adoption in Christ, manifested by vocal thanksgiving and earnest prayer;-so that they wanted not a free-will offering, a worship and service in their peculiar way. And if our young people now left our desolate, sleepy, silent meetings, and frequented those of other denominations, it was because they found there not merely the table set and the cloth spread, but the feast prepared: and were able to obtain (what they were left without among us) the word preached with power, and nourishment for the soul. Such were, it is believed, at times rightly absent, in search of doctrine, desiring to have satisfied that hunger and thirst after it which they felt in themselves. The present form of quakerism was, however, strenuously upheld, and the present means of grace, and the rules and advices respecting them declared sufficient; and when I left the Meeting it was being occupied by a Friend with a description of the tried efficacy, as a means of true devotion, of silent week-day meetings!

To return from this digression to the proposition from Westmoreland, of the following sitting, the prevalent sense of those present, as found by a discussion of three full hours was, not to entertain it : and the paper was accordingly returned to the Representatives who had brought it in. This was not all: the Quarterly Meeting was charged by several speakers with weakness' in having given birth to it-an imputation which did not seem to sit very easy on the Friends concerned. Even any notice of it on the minutes was declined at the Table—and thus, but for an insignificant piece of routine business, put in at the close of the sitting, our great Legislative assembly would have been chargeable as having occupied a whole forenoon, with nothing to show for the time!

The reasons and motives which influenced the speakers, on this memorable occasion, seem to have been nearly as follows. A few, who had concurred in the request, or who approved the principle on which the parties in question proceeded, willing to bring their deeds to the light, courted discussion; and, feeling their ground firın, invited even the censure of the Meeting-should it incline that way. But a great majority, of a description which may very properly be termed Conservative, infallible in their own judgment, as to the inconsistency of the beggarly elements' and 'typical shadows' with our highly spiritual views' evited this with care; relying on the discretion of the Quarterly Meeting aggrieved by the novelty, to act under Rules capable of a large interpretation, in the way of disciplinary coercion aided (as they

weened they should be) by a strong deputation from the Yearly Meeting. This appointment, several of our leading men, who had seen service' on a late occasion in Lancashire, were however anxious to avert:-and thus the whole cause for the present is quashed; and the Proposition falls to the ground. Delay is sure to be favorable to things as they are: it will give time for further disgust to be ministered, and for many more secessions to ensue.

It was found impracticable, on this question, to develope in such an assembly its real merits: to separate from the consideration of superstitious usage and an invented ceremony, belonging to a state-established church, and for which a Priest takes money, that of the simple ordinance of Christ himself, taken up and acted upon by hands altogether clear of such imputations.

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The discretion of the Meeting for Sufferings, which had so well laid to sleep the question of proceeding in our testimony against priestly and parochial exactions, has not been so exercised as to let pass (this year) the opportunity of stepping into the Yearly Meeting's place on an occasion purely pastoral, and in a matter it had never before meddled with in that way. In the Twelfth month, 1836, it had issued an Epistle to the Quarterly and other Meetings,' which, for the sake of fairness, I shall insert in another place. (See Art. iii.) The opening of this document purports its being drawn forth by the printing and industrious circulation of various papers and pamphlets, put forth apparently for the purpose of weakening the attachment of the members of our religious society to those views of Christian truth and practice, which have ever been maintained by Friends. No book is pointed out, nor author named; nor is even any heretical opinion denounced in this document: which, having thus formed a vague pretext (to save harmless the authority of the Yearly Meeting), proceeds warmly to recommend things as they now are and ever have been among us, in point of doctrine and worship, to the observance and support of our Members.

I was induced to make it a question in the large Committee, whether this was a legitimate proceeding; and whether it was authorized by the constitution of the Meeting for Sufferings,' and the nature of the trust it holds, but was easily put down, by divers Representatives expressing their entire unity and satisfaction with it!*

A key to the real meaning of this gratuitous offer of help to the Mystic cause may, perhaps, be found in the communications of our American friends. In the Epistle from Ohio, our Ex-friend Elisha Bates, and those who agree with him in sentiment are, not indeed by name but plainly by reference to past proceedings, designated as persons sowing doctrine subversive of our principles, and doing the office of the enemy of all good! Amidst this zeal for our traditions, there is mixed also a little animosity against Christian missions-the Method

*The Meeting for Sufferings is composed of Friends recommended by the Overseers, merely as consistent members; and appointed by the Yearly Meeting. The appointment has nothing in common with the ministry, or with eldership among us.-ED.

LII. Rules so inrolled may be removed or amended.

LIII. Rules when confirmed and inrolled shall be of the same validity as if enacted by Parliament.

LIV. Rules so enrolled shall be observed by the Commissioners in making their Awards.

LV. Persons interested in any Slaves manumitted by this Act may prefer Claims before the Commissioners, who are to make rules for the Conduct of all Proceedings under the Commission.

LVI. Commissioners to adjudicate on all Claims preferred to them. Appeal may be made against adjudication. His Majesty in Council may make Rules for the Regulation of such Appeals. In adverse Claims, any Claimant interested in the Adjudication may undertake its defence.

And be it further enacted, That the said Commissioners shall proceed in the Manner to be prescribed by any such general Rules as last aforesaid, to inquire into and adjudicate upon any such Claims as may be so preferred to them, and shall upon each such Claim make their Adjudication and Award in such Manner and Form as shall be prescribed by any such last-mentioned general Rules; and if any Person interested in, or affected by, any such Adjudication or Award shall be dissatisfied therewith, it shall be lawful for such Person to appeal therefrom to His Majesty in Council, and Notice of any such Appeal shall be served upon the said Commissioners, who shall thereupon undertake the Defence thereof; and it shall be competent to His Majesty in Council to make and establish all such Rules and Regulations as to his Majesty shall seem meet, respecting the time and manner of preferring and proceeding upon such appeals, and respecting the Course to be observed in defending the same, which Rules shall be so framed as to promote, as far as may be consistent with Justice, all practicable Economy and Dispatch in the proceedings upon the decision thereof; and in cases in which any Two or more Persons shall have preferred before the said Commissioners adverse or opposing Claims, and in which any or either of such Persons shall be interested to sustain the adjudications or award of such Commissioners thereupon, then and in every such case it shall be lawful for any Person or Persons so interested, to undertake the defence of any such appeal in lieu and instead of the said Commissioners.

LVII. His Majesty in Council may confirm or disallow, or alter or remit, Adjudications appealed against.

LVIII. Failing any Appeal, the Award of the Commissioners final,

LIX. And be it further enacted, That the Lord High Treasurer, or the Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, or any Three or more of them, for the time being, may order and direct to be issued and paid out of the said Sum of Twenty Millions of Pounds Sterling any Sum or Sums of Money for the Payment of Salaries to Commissioners, Officers, Clerks, and other Persons acting in relation to such Compensation in the Execution of this Act, and for discharging such incidental Expences as shall necessarily attend the same, in such manner as the Lord High Treasurer, or Commissioners of the Treasury, or any Three or more of them, shall from time to time think fit and

reasonable; and an Account of such Expence shall be annually laid before Parliament.

LX. And be it enacted, That a Certificate containing a List of the Names and Designations of the several Persons in whose favour any Sum or Sums of Money shall be awarded from time to time under the Provisions of this Act by the Commissioners, as herein-before mentioned, shall be signed by Three or more of the said Commissioners, who shall forthwith transmit the same to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State then having Charge of the Affairs of the said Colonies, for his Approbation and Signature, who shall, when he shall have signed the same, transmit it to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury; and the said Commissioners of the Treasury, or any Three of such Commissioners, shall thereupon, by Warrant under their Hands, authorize the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt to pay the said Sums, out of the Monies standing upon their Account in the Books of the said Bank under the Title of " The West India Compensation Account," to the Persons named in such Certificate; and the said Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, or the Comptroller General or Assistant Comptroller General acting under the said Commissioners, are hereby required to pay all such Sums of Money to the Persons named therein, under such Forms and Regulations as the said Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt shall think fit to adopt for that Purpose.

LXI. And whereas in some of the Colonies aforesaid a certain Statute, made in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Years of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for preventing the Mischiefs and Dangers that may arise by certain Persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawful Oaths ;" and a certain other Statute made in the Seventeenth Year of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for restraining Nonconformists from inhabiting in Corporations ;" and a certain other Statute, made in the Twenty-second Year of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles ;" and a certain other Statute, made in the the First and Second Year of King William and Queen Mary, intituled "An Act for exempting Their Majesty's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certain Laws;" and a certain other Statute, made in the Tenth Year of Queen Anne, intituled "An Act for preserving the Protestant Religion by better securing the Church of England as by Law established; and for confirming the Toleration granted to Protestant Dissenters by an Act intituled An Act for exempting Their Majesty's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certain Laws, and for supplying the Defects thereof; and for the further securing the Protestant Succession, by requiring the Practisers of the Law in North Britain to take the Oaths and subscribe the Declaration therein mentioned;" or some one of those Statutes, or some Parts thereof or of some of them, have and hath been adopted, and are or is in force; be it further enacted, That in such of the Colonies aforesaid

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in which the said several Statutes or any of them, or any Parts thereof or any of them, have or hath been adopted and are or is in force, a certain Statute made in the Fifty-second Year of His late Majesty King George the Third, intitutled "An Act to repeal certain Acts and amend other acts relating to Religious Worship and Assemblies, and Persons teaching or preaching therein," shall be and is hereby declared to be in force, as fully and effectually as if such Colonies had been expressly named and enumerated for that Purpose in such last-recited Statute: Provided nevertheless, that in the said several Colonies, to which the said Act of His late Majesty King George the Third is so extended and declared applicable as aforesaid, any Two or more Justices of the Peace holding any such Special Commission as aforesaid shall have, exercise, and enjoy all and every the Jurisdiction, Powers, and Authorities whatsoever, which by force and virtue of the said Act are within the Realm of England had, exercised, and enjoyed by the several Justices of the Peace, and by the General and Quarter Sessions therein mentioned.

LXII. His Majesty in Council may make all necessary Laws for giving effect to this Act in the Settlement of Honduras.

LXIII And be it further enacted, that within the Meaning and for the Purposes of this Act every Person who for the Time being shall be in the lawful Administration of the Government of any of the said Colonies shall be taken to be the Governor thereof.

LXIV. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this Act contained doth or shall extend to any of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena.

LXV. And be it further enacted, That in the Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Mauritius the several Parts of this Act shail take effect and come into operation, or shall cease to operate and to be in force, as the case may be, at Periods more remote than the respective Periods herein-before for such Purposes limited by the following Intervals of Time; videlicet, by Four Calendar Months in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and by Six Calendar Months in the Colony of the Mauritius.

LXVI. And be it further enacted and declared, That within the Meaning and for the Purposes of this Act all Islands and Territories dependent upon any of the Colonies aforesaid, and constituting Parts of the same Colonial Government, shall respectively be taken to be Parts of such respective Colonies.

NOTE BY A FRIEND.-Many of the Friends of the oppressed Negroes have regretted that this proceeding, carried as it was through the Legislature by the aroused voice of the nation, which would have supported the Ministry in a complete measure, did not go the length of introducing in our Colonies entire and immediate abolition. Nearly one half of the term of apprenticeship has now passed, and time has brought these fears to the test of experience. Within the last few