April 10th.-At Wimeswould, in the Loughborough Circuit, Mr. W. D. Kirk, a ClassLeader and Local Preacher. His health had long failed; yet his death, at last, was sudden. While sitting in his chair, and taking his breakfast, in a moment he was summoned away. Resigned and peaceful in affliction, we doubt not he was found ready for the coming of his Lord. S. F.

April 13th.-At Aswardby, in the Spilsby Circuit, aged eighty-five, Richard Brackenbury, Esq., brother to the late Robert C. Brackenbury, Esq., of Raithby-Hall. He was converted to God more than fifty years ago, and for a long period has been a Leader and Local Preacher. He was a humble Christian, a friend and benefactor of the poor, a liberal supporter of the work of God, and especially in the cause of Christian Missions. A few days before he died, when a part of his family were standing around his bed, he expressed strong confidence in the knowledge of Christ as his Redeemer; saying, "I know that my Redeemer liveth.' I know that Christ loved me, and gave himself for me." J. J.

April 15th.-At Cambridge, Mrs. Porcher, aged eighty years. She had been a member of the Methodist society nearly half a century, during which she maintained an exemplary character. She was a woman of active and industrious habits, and brought up a large family with great credit. Her last illness was protracted; but Christ was increasingly precious, and her soul was kept in peace. R. M.

April 17th.-At Bury, William Kay, Esq., aged sixty-five. For more than forty-eight years he was a consistent member of the Methodist society, and was warmly attached to it. As a Class-Leader and Circuit-Steward, he rendered valuable service to the cause which he loved. His last affliction was short, and extreme debility rendered him incapable of conversing much with others; but the Lord, who was his support, enabled him to possess his soul in patience: his confidence in the mercy of God, through Christ, remained unshaken; and he died in peace, universally respected, and much lamented by his family and friends.

J. B.

April 20th.-At Ferriby, in the Barton Circuit, Mary, the wife of Mr. Richard Skinner, aged sixty-seven. About forty-five years ago she received her first religious impressions, and sought and found the peace which results from the justifying grace of God. Though naturally of a retiring disposition, yet she avowed the profession of her faith by a union with the Wesleyan branch of the church of Christ; and for the remainder of her life was a consistent and attached member. For many years she suffered much from asthma; but she was preserved in patience, realizing to the end the blessedness of those who trust in the Lord. When the time of her release came, she was found waiting for her Lord, and died in great peace. T. K.

April 22d.-At St. Austell, aged twenty-six, the Rev. William K. George, Wesleyan Minis

ter. At the age of sixteen he was soundly converted to God, and joined the Wesleyan church in that town. From that period he walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. He subsequently became a Local Preacher, was recommended for our Itinerant work, received three years' tuition in our valuable Theological Institution, spent one year in the Bridport Circuit, and then returned to his native town to die. His end was eminently calm and peaceful. R. M.

April 26th.-In the Birmingham West Circuit, aged fifty-nine, Mrs. Fanny Shuttleworth, mother-in-law to the Rev. S. Lucas, 1st. She had been a consistent member of the Wesleyan church thirteen years. Her severe affliction, of only a few days' continuance, found her ready for the hasty summons. With great presence of mind, though always a timid Christian, she called her family around her, and gave each a solemn charge to meet her in heaven. Some of her last expressions were,

April 27th.-At his residence, in BrunswickPlace, City-Road, London, aged ninety-two years and four months, the Rev. Henry Moore, whose distinguished honour it was to be the trusted friend of the Rev. John Wesley, and subsequently his biographer. As we understand that materials exist (and will, in due time, be used) for a detailed account of his life, a very brief notice will now be sufficient. He was born at Dublin, Dec. 21st, 1751, and commenced his ministerial labours in May, 1779; so that he had been, at the time of his death, a Wesleyan Minister for the long period of sixty-five years, Latterly, the weakness of such an advanced age has issued in what was indeed "feebleness extreme;" but even when scarcely able to attend to external circumstances, reference to spiritual subjects never failed to arouse him; and his countenance, if not his words, indicated the deep and pleasing interest he still continued to take in them. For some days before his death he was, with only occasional intervals, in a comatose state; but his mind was evidently peaceful in its entire repose on the merits of Christ. In one of those intervals, in reply to an observation which was made to him, he said, though with considerable effort, and just so as to make himself heard, "Happy, happy, happy." Very shortly before he "fell asleep," his everwatchful niece, Miss Rutherford, perceiving that he was again conscious of surrounding objects, said to him, "You are in the valley now; but

solemn, deliberate oaths mere matters of course, requiring, when they are taken officially and in reference to public matters, a different rule respecting adherence to truth from that which would have to be observed in private life? May a man have a private opinion, and a public opinion? a private conscience, and a public conscience? May he say-swear officially to that which, as an individual, he knows to be untrue? It is time that these attempts to show that, though a man in private life would be dishonoured, if he said that black was white, or white black, yet, in public and official proceedings, an opposite course is positively lawful, should be put down and scouted, by whomsoever made. Truth is truth, falsehood is falsehood; and the living God, who has enacted one rule for all, is no respecter of persons; and he who deliberately states, as a public man, what he would scorn to state privately, as a man of honour, will find that as there is no respect of persons in the law of God, so there shall be none in the judgment of God. We refer to no party in these remarks. There is sadly too much of it in all parties. They may call it political wisdom: we call it sinful craftiness. No blessing can come on measures thus carried on, and they who thus engage in them may rely on it, that the God of truth "will not hold them guiltless." Christian electors ought to set a mark on such men; and, however commanding their talents, however correct their political opinions may be supposed to be, if they are not men of truth and honour in public as well as in private life, firmly withdraw from them all support.

We feel more regret than we can express at the issue of the debates on the proposition of Lord Ashley to which our last paper referred. We there distinctly stated, that into the principle of the question we did not enter. Sir Robert Peel, and Sir James Graham, had fully admitted it, by the clause which, in the case of women and children, limited labour to twelve hours. Lord Ashley proposed ten. His Lordship argued on the moral aspects of the

case; and if it were proper so far to prefer moral ends to political and commercial convenience, as to have a twelvehour limitation, then, the moral ground being thus on both sides assumed, his arguments were triumphant. We allow the difficulties of the case so far as the question is, On what principle shall we proceed? But the actual limitation of the Government clause reduced the real question to one of degree. Government, however, argued the case on the principles of political and commercial economy; and explicitly stated, that their existence as a Government was staked on it; so that, though at one time Lord Ashley had had a majority of nine in favour of ten hours, on the final debate, after Ministers had declared that they should consider the measure as a Government question, he was defeated by a majority of one hundred and thirty-eight. Are SUCH the operations of party?

The Bill for quieting Unitarians in the possession of their usurped trusts has passed the House of Lords. The Bishops of London and Exeter both spoke decidedly against it; but seeing that all was of no avail, they declined dividing the House, and all the Bishops present withdrew. Sir Robert Peel has brought it into the House of Commons, and with an alteration from its first proposal, which exceedingly aggravates the evil. Before, the provisions of the Act were not to apply to suits commenced before the fixed date. Now, the Act is made to refer to pending suits, and the Judges are required to apply it to them. The Irish Lady Hewley's case has been pending some time, and the Irish Lord Chancellor has declared it to be ripe for judgment, intimating that, according to the law, as fixed by the English Chancery, that judgment would be against the present possessors. But he did not deliver judgment. In the interim this Bill is brought forward. It is at first

thousand per annum will have, contrary to what was law when the case was argued, to be handed over to those whose only title will thus be the present Bill. It is the greatest blow that was ever aimed at the English law of trusts and entails. Its injustice consists in making possession, and not the intention of the original trustor, the principle of decision. And this is aggravated by the fact, that such a Bill is only called for by the departure of some of the later generations of Trustees from the faith, for the perpetuation of which the Trust was founded. Had those Ministers and Trustees, when they quietly, and in many instances secretly, (we could refer to American proceedings which would require us to say, craftily,) departed from the faith, left the premises, and built others with their own money, there would have been no necessity for such a measure as is now brought forward. Trinitarians have not usurped Unitarian property. We regret to see Sir Robert Peel coming forward in defence of these Unitarian usurpations. What can he be thinking about? At first he seemed resolved to hurry the measure, but has since postponed it till after the Whitsuntide recess. The opportunity will be

taken to use all constitutional methods of opposition by those who do not wish the law of trusts to be fundamentally altered, and altered for the alone sake of Socinians.

But we will turn to a more pleasing subject. In former years this Magazine has given some account of the religious Anniversaries regularly held in London at this season of the year; but latterly their number has been so great, that we have only been able to notice, and that very briefly, a select portion of them. Now that, from so many sources, information so much more copious can be obtained, we think it is no longer necessary to occupy our pages with notices containing so little intelligence, and referring, after all, to only a part of the important and interesting occupancy of the month. Our readers will naturally feel chiefly (though by no means exclusively) interested in the Annual Meet

ing of the Wesleyan Missionary Society; but of this, the "Monthly Notices," appended as usual to the present Number, will furnish them with as full an account as such reports can give. No mere report, however, can come up to the entire assemblage of facts which the case includes. Reports can give the names of the speakers, and the speeches which they addressed to the Meeting. But though they can tell what was said, yet how it was said, and how, likewise, it was received, the feelings of speakers and audience, all this is beyond the reach of the most attentive reporter, and refuses to be embodied in the most accurate representation that his short-hand enables him to give. But, notwithstanding this unavoidable deficiency, the reported speeches at the various Meetings which have recently been held, though divested of so much which rendered them at the time emphatic, and which sometimes greatly augmented their significance, abundantly demonstrate the importance of the Meetings themselves; while the reported fact, that the attendance, to say the least of it, was as large as ever, testifies to the undiminished interest which is taken in the objects to which they respectively refer. It is the fashion, in some quarters, to sneer at Exeter-Hall speeches, and Exeter-Hall feelings. It is easy to sneer at anything and everything at which people wish to sneer. But ridicule is no farther the test of truth than as it can be found to be just. That is, ridicule must be tested by truth, before truth can be tested by ridicule. And, in the present case, let Exeter-Hall speeches be examined in reference to both their facts and their arguments, and we are much mistaken if they would lose anything by being com pared with speeches delivered anywhere else. They contain a vast quantity of most important information respecting the condition, religious, moral, and temporal, of almost all parts of the world; and the argumentative and impassioned appeals to the judgment, the heart, and the conscience, to which the declared facts give rise, as well as the results which they produce, are alike honourable

to all who are concerned,-to the speakers, and to their hearers responding in their feelings and with their purses. In this day of party strife, when party success is so often made the avowed object of contention, as though national interests were so necessarily included in it, as that it shall be safe to overlook every other indication, and to fix attention on this alone, it not only refreshes the mind, but enlarges it, to enter among the stirring and expansive subjects of the Exeter-Hall May Meetings. The Meetings are necessarily sectional, except in the case of that noble institution which furnishes ground on which all Christians may stand without either strife or compromise: but though sectional, they are not sectarian. The speakers at the several Missionary Meetings, for instance, refer immediately to their several spheres of particular labour; but they acknowledge the existence of other labourers, in other portions of the wide field, and they point to the ultimate object as that which is finally to be secured by the blessing of God on the separate, but not opposing, labours of all, even the conversion of the world to the faith of Christ, and the service of God, and the enjoyment of all the personal and social blessings of redemption. What subjects are so ennobling, so elevating, so purifying, yes, and so cheering also, as those to which the speakers direct the attention of the crowded audiences which constitute the Exeter-Hall May Meetings ?

It is every way encouraging to find that year after year, the interest of these Meetings continues to increase. The period of exciting novelty has gone by; but the interest is greater than ever. The speeches are becoming more than ever speeches of authenticated facts, and well-principled argumentations; and the interest seems to increase in proportion. We were particularly struck with this in the Meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. We refer our readers to the excellent report of the speeches contained in the "Notices." There was nothing to excite feeling but the principles and facts belonging to the grand Missionary question, as illustrated by,

or applicable to, the proceedings of this particular Society. The feeling, so far as its strength was concerned, might really have been said to be enthusiastic; but it was that hallowed feeling which is awakened and sustained by truth,-feeling which is the mightier because originating in the enlightened, and convinced, and consenting judgment. It was an admirable Meeting; and the more so, that it was so purely Missionary. This the reader will at once perceive by referring to the reported speeches.

And is it nothing that thus, year after year, such crowds continue to assemble, showing not only the sincerity, but the strength, of their feelings by the large amount of their contributions? and that these crowds are but, as it were, the representatives of similar Meetings, though on a smaller scale, held in every town-almost in every village and even hamlet throughout the country? Undoubtedly there is much, in the various aspects of political affairs, to occasion very gloomy forebodings; and especially is this the case when the mind dwells upon the practical identification of principle with party, which really amounts to the subordination of the first to the last. But we look at the May Meet

ings.

We see them every year improving in character, interest, and influence. Every year there is less of adventitious circumstance, and more of the pleading of essential truth. And every year do young and old throng to the Meetings with what appears to be a greater earnestness than ever, and depart from them actually saying, "Well, this is the best Meeting we ever attended." Can we look at these circumstances, and believe the Bible, and not feel that they are tokens for good, both for our country, and for the church, and for the world? Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Sion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." By increasing personal piety, by purer, more ardent, and more self-denying zeal, let us enter more fully into the gracious designs of God respecting ourselves and the world.