Movers and Seconders.

J. L. Forster, Esq., and C. Fortescue, Esq.-Robert

Bourke, Esq., and Rev. R. 11. Nixon and Rev.

James Stubbs, and J. M'Clintock, Esq. Jun.

Officers of the Association. President, the Earl of Roden: Vice Presidents, Hon. John Jocelyn, J. L. Foster, Esq., J. M'Clintock, Esq., and C. Fortescue, Esq.: Treasurer, T. Parker, Esq. Secretaries, Robert Bourke, Esq., and J. M'Clintock, Esq. jun.

Throughout this Visit, the earnestness with which the subject of Missions was entered into, was truly gratifying. At Youghall, Cork, and Kilkenny, the practice of making Collections after the Meetings -universal in other parts of the United Kingdom, but hitherto unusual in Ireland was adopted and it is manifest, from the spirit displayed in these and other places, that the Irish Friends of Missions will not long be satisfied, without thus testifying, at every Meeting, their warm interest in behalf of the Heathen. In various places, Ladies' Associations for collecting Weekly Contributions had been formed; but this system is gradually improving, by the addition of General Associations, with Annual Sub

scribers of One Guinea and up

ward.

The case of Ireland brought much before the Meetings the objection against Missions, that Christians ought to direct their exclusive attention to the removal of wretchedness and sin from their own country. This objection was ably repelled at various Meetings, on these grounds:-that the plain command of Christ obliged us to send the Gospel to all nations-that the Apostles did not confine themselves to Judea, though there were multitudes of wicked Jews there-that the Heathen are peculiarly situated, as being destitute of God's Word: if they become anxious about futurity, their spiritual guides do but increase the thick darkness with

blessing on our own Country; and those very individuals, who are most zealous for the salvation of the Heathen, are the very persons who are foremost in every plan of doing good at home.

UNITED BRETHREN. Occasion and Object of the Periodical Accounts of the Missions.

MR. LATROBE has prefixed to a recent Number of the "Periodical Accounts" the following statement, which conveys information that will be interesting to all the Friends of the Brethren.

The Missions of the United Brethren among the Heathen having, by various means, and principally by the publication of the Periodical Accounts, become known to the public, and to the religious of various denominations, it has been of this work, of which 100 Numbers are suggested, that some account of the origin now completed, would form a suitable introduction to a New Volume.

A space of nearly fifty years had elapsed, between the commencement of these Missions and the period alluded to, during which the Brethren had, with some few exceptions, refrained from prepublic; and proclaiming to the world senting themselves before the eye of the

what the Lord had enabled them to do, in His name, for the good of their fellow-men. Having rendered themselves` justly liable to the charge of indiscre tion, by various publications, both in prose and verse, which, in former times, gave rise to much obloquy and to many misrepresentations of their views and labours, they perhaps went too far, in endeavouring to avoid them, by an almost total silence. Relative to their Missions, some detached works indeed appeared, such as the Histories of the Missions in Greenland, North America, and the Danish West-India Islands, and occasionally a few small pamphlets; but there were no regular Reports.

tary to the Brethren's Society for the In 1787, having been appointed Secre

Furtherance of the Gospel, it became my duty, to give some account of its progress, both to the Congregations in

England, and to the small but increasing number of Subscribers and Benefactors. The only means at the disposal of my predecessors, namely, the circulation of Manuscript Copies of Reports from our Missions, proved very inefficient; besides occasioning frequent delays, and sometimes the loss of the documents. I, therefore, proposed to print a brief statement of our proceedings; but the reluctance before alluded to, to step into public notice, operated yet so strongly on the minds of several worthy and active Members of our Society, that the measure had to encounter considerable opposition. At length, appealing to the General Synod, held in 1789, leave was granted, under certain conditions, to print extracts of Diaries and Letters; and, in 1790, the First Number of the Periodical Accounts made its appearance. About the year 1788, a requisition had been sent to me, by the late Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus (for whose invaluable friendship, I was indebted to my late Father), to furnish to the Privy Council a statement of the manner, in which the Missions of the United Brethren among the Negro Slaves in the West-India Islands were conducted; the case of this people having recently become the subject of Parliamentary Investigation, owing to the discussions relative to the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The Memorial which I then delivered may be found in the printed Report of the Privy Council, and forms the First Number of the Periodical Accounts*.

At first, only 500 copies of these Accounts were printed; and this quantity was found quite sufficient, for distribution among the Congregations of the Brethren and the friends of their Missions. With the exception of a few individuals who took a lively interest in this cause, the contributors were chiefly such as, out of respect to my revered Father, to

• Inquiries had also been made, by the Advocates of the Abolition in the Privy Council, what evidence our Missionaries might be able to furnish, concerning the treatment of the Negroes: but, as the Brethren never interfere with the arrangements, civil or political, of those lands, where God has placed them, or with the affairs of other Churches or Societies; and as they were convinced, on the present Occasion, that nothing but harm could result to the Missions from their imperfect testimony; it was deemed right to request exemption from the proposed examination. In consequence of this Petition, the Lords of Council generously excused the ap pearance of the Missionaries at their bar; and merely required a statement of the Brethren's manner of conducting Missions, with which they condescended, in an Official Letter written by the Bishop of Loudon, to express their entire satisfaction.

Brother James Hutton the late Secre tary of the Unity, and to some other well-known members of the Brethren's Church, were willing to assist any cause, recommended by them. But the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen did not, at that time, generally engage the attention and the affec. tions of the Religious Public. I have repeatedly heard many excellent Christians remark, that, while there was so much to be done at home, they were surprized at the Brethren directing their labours to foreign countries; where their exertions seemed attended with almost insurmountable difficulties, and were productive of very small and disproportionate success. The detailed information, however, given by the Periodical Accounts, excited more interest in the progress of an undertaking, so important as the Instruction of the Heathen in the truths of the Gospel.

Prior to the publication of this work, two Societies, in immediate connection with the Established Church, had directed their attention to several of the British Colonies, and to part of the Coast of Coromandel; and the Wesleyan Methodists had likewise begun Missions, in some of the West-India Islands. It is, however, chiefly to the last thirty years, that we must look for the rise of those Institutions, which have been the means of awakening a more general desire among all classes in this country, to promote the knowledge of the Redeemer's Name. During this period, we have beheld the Baptists commence their important labours in the East Indies, and the London and Church Missionary Societies enter upon a still more extended field of operation-a field, from which a rich harvest has been already gathered, in the Islands of the Pacific and on the Coast of Western Africa. The success attending these various Missionary Exertions seems to afford a sufficient proof, that the time is now come, when the Lord, who has opened the hearts and hands of His people to further His work, will also, by the mighty power of His Holy Spirit, cause His name to be known on the earth, His saving health among all nations.

To this end He sends forth His servants of every denomination, prepares them for their office by His Holy Spirit, and causes their labours to be blessed with abundant fruit. The Church of the Brethren no longer appears to stand

almost alone, inviting the Heathen World to look to Jesus and be saved: the doubts, formerly expressed concerning the necessity of Missionary Exertions, are, for the most part, removed; and the obligations, resting upon Christians of every name, to make these exertions, are very generally acknowledged. Now we see, in all the Churches of Christ, men arise, who are ready to combine the most zealous endeavours, with the prayer, Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

By the publication of the Periodical Accounts, it was not our design to give a connected History of each Mission; but merely to communicate to our friends, extracts from such Letters, Reports, and Diaries as might arrive, from time to time, from our different Stations. The extraordinary events of the late war became, through the providence of God, the means of bringing us into more immediate correspondence with some of our Missions, from which we had heretofore, as at present, received Reports alone through foreign channels. The Colonies of Surinam, the Cape of Good Hope, the Danish West-India Islands, and Greenland, were, in succession, and for a season, placed under British Sovereignty; and the Missionaries were under the necessity of applying to our Society for what they wanted. To us, it afforded the sincerest pleasure, thus to become acquainted with many worthy servants of God, both by correspondence, and personally when passing through England on their way to and from their respective Stations. The inconveniences and difficulties, which naturally arose out of the circumstances of the war, were obviated, as far as possible, by the indulgence of our benevolent Government; ever ready to afford facility to the means adopted for the spiritual and temporal benefit of the nations under its dominion. No material interruption, therefore, took place; and we cannot help remarking, with gratitude to our merciful Heavenly Father, that, by His gracious Providence, our correspondence with the various Missions of the Brethren's Church, from which so much comfort and encouragement are derived, both at home and abroad, was maintained and preserved, amidst all the vicissitudes of a long-protracted contest and the frequent changes thereby produced. More especially are we called

upon to quote, with heartful thankfulness, the uninterrupted communications which we have had with our Mission on the Coast of Labrador, now for upward of fifty years; notwithstanding all the dangers to which our little vessel has been exposed, from floating ice, from sunken rocks, and, during the war, from the enemy's cruisers: we have thus been enabled, from year to year, to report to our friends, the progress of that interesting Mission, by the insertion of Letters from the three Settlements. The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope having remained in possession of the English, our communications from that quarter have been frequent.

The very great increase of Expense connected with the maintenance of that Department in our Church, which is permanently and exclusively engaged in the business of Missions, together with the decrease of means consequent upon the war, would indeed have been not only appalling but ruinous, had not God, in mercy, raised up many friends, (chiefly by the perusal of the Periodical Accounts,) who, having learnt to esteem the Missions of the Brethren as a Work of God, felt themselves called upon to step in for our relief. By their generous aid, the Directors and Managers of these Institutions have been enabled to maintain their ground: and to persevere, in unshaken dependence on their Almighty Helper, in the prosecution of a Work, committed now for nearly a century to a part of the Church of Christ, in itself very weak and insufficient; but highly and undeservedly favoured, as an instrument for the promotion of His glory. Of this, the simple narratives inserted in the Periodical Accounts afford ample proof.

But, while we gratefully acknowledge the bounty of individuals, we cannot forget how largely we are indebted to the various Associations formed in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other places, in aid of our Missions; not by the influence or at the solicitation of the Brethren, but by the love and power of God alone, operating on the hearts of His willing people. Without the liberal support of these unlooked-for Auxiliaries, we must indeed have sunk under the pecuniary difficulties, which of late years have accumulated upon us. May He, who has promised an eternal reward of mercy, to all who assist in the building up of His Zion, shower down

the Directors quote the following Resolutions respecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, adopted at a Final Conference, held at Verona, on the 28th of November :

The Plenipotentiaries of Austria,of France, of Great Britain, of Prussia, and of Russia, assembled in Congress at Verona, considering, that their august Sovereigns have taken part in the Declaration of the 8th February 1815, by which the Powers assembled at the Congress of Vienna have proclaimed in the face of Europe their invariable resolution to put a stop to the commerce known by the name of the African Slave-Trade

Considering, moreover, that, notwithstanding this Declaration, and in spite of the legislative measures which have in consequence been adopted in various countries, and of the several treaties concluded since that period between the maritime powers, this commerce, solemnly proscribed, has continued to this very day; that it has gained in activity what it may have lost in extent; that it has even taken a still more odious character, and is become more dreadful from the nature of the means to which those who carry it on are compelled to have

recourse

That the causes of so revolting an abuse are chiefly to be found in the fraudulent practices, by means of which the persons engaged in these nefarious speculations elude the laws of their country, and the vigilance of the cruizers stationed to put a stop to their iniquities, and veil those criminal operations, of which thousands of human beings annually become their innocent victims

That the Powers of Europe are called upon by their previous engagements, as well as by sacred duty, to seek the most efficient means of preventing a traffic which the laws of almost every civilized country have already declared to be culpable and illegal, and of punishing with severity those who persist in carrying it on in manifest violation of those laws

Acknowledge the necessity of devoting the most serions attention to an object of such importance to the honour and welfare of humanity, and consequently declare, in the name of their angust Sovereigns,

That they continue firm in the principles and sentiments manifested by those Sovereigns, in the Declaration of the 8th February, 1815; and that they have never ceased, nor ever will cease, to consider the SlaveTrade as " A SCOURGE WHICH HAS TOO LONG DESOLATED AFRICA, DEGRADED EUROPE, AND AFFLICTED HUMANITY" and that they are ready to concur in every thing that may secure and accelerate the complete and final abolition of that traffic:

That in order to give effect to this renewed Declaration, their respective Cabinets will eagerly enter into the examination of any measure, compatible with their rights and the interests of their subjects, to pro

duce a result that may prove to the world the sincerity of their wishes, and of their

efforts, in favour of a cause worthy of their common solicitude.

Conduct of France, in reference to the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

The course pursued by France at the Congress is detailed by the Directors on this subject, and on the general result of the Congress, they remark

The Directors have now detailed the Negotiations on the subject of the Slave Trade, which took place at the recent Congress at Verona; and they anticipate the concurrence of the General Meeting, when they venture to express their bitter disappointment at the result of these conferences, if, indeed, any favourable result at all can be said to have been obtained. The prospect of a total suppression of the increased and increasing horrors of that odious traffic, seems indeed more distant than ever; and the Directors must be allowed to lament, that, as they advance in the discharge of the important duties confided to them by the Subscribers, the great object which both have at heart appears to recede from their view.

This impression they themselves feel it impossible to resist; and they think it must operate with equal force on all those friends of the African Cause, who will ever so slightly attend to the conduct of France and the language of its Plenipotentiaries, in reply to the Memorial of the Duke of Wellington.

When acting in concert with the other Allied Powers, they concur in all those vague generalities of verbal reprobation, which,as experience teaches, bind them to no specific efficient measures, and from which they could not with any semblance of honour or good faith retire; but,when pressed by the Duke to prove their sincerity, by adopting such a line of action as should be really efficient, their answer is a mere tissue of excuses, founded,some of them,'on misrepresentations of fact, others on circumstances of which the existence may be protracted to an indefinite extent, and of a nature which they pretend not to have the power, and certainly do not exhibit the least inclination, to alter or remove.

What expectation, after this, of any good from that quarter, can be rationally indulged