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gusting a talented man by making him in all meetings, simply a speaking brother," and a suspicion, if not a persuasion, that golden bribes are presented to his gaze to attract him into another community, influence the lords temporal to honour him with a share of their authority. But the mediocrity men, and these are the many, are left without remedy; and their only course is, either to submit quietly to the yoke, or to resign their ministry, as three respectable preachers did at the Conference of 1830.

*

Is such the operation of the lay delegation plan? Does it rob preachers of their official privileges, and release people from the necessity of yielding them any obedience? Does it drive excellent men from the ministry? With this character it never can find favour in the eyes of the great body of the Wesleyan Methodists. No! Thanks to the Rev. J. Wesley-thanks to the fathers and brethren of 1797-and, above all, thanks to the great Head of the Church, that the old connexion has never been degraded, nor enslaved, nor narrowed, with the tyranny of lay delegation. The ministry-as Jesus Christ established it, and not as republican zealots would mould it-is, and shall be, preserved in Methodism; and while we are thus faithful to Him, he will put increasing honour upon us: the benediction which Moses pronounced upon his people shall be fulfilled to our Israel :-"The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you."

EPSILON.

SKETCHES OF "THE GRAND CENTRAL ASSOCIATION;" OR,

SINGULARLY FITTED FOR GREAT ACTIONS."

"MEN

To meet the numerous inquiries of those persons who are concerned to know something of certain individuals who have recently been figuring before the public, the following items of information are respectfully presented through the medium of the Liverpool Illuminator.

I.-"WILLIAM SMITH, Esq. of Reddish House," the Treasurer of the Association, is reputed to be a wealthy cotton-spinner and manufacturer, having a mill at Stockport and a warehouse in Manchester. As stated in his recent affidavit, in the Court of Chancery, he is a trustee of sundry chapels in Stockport and its neighbourhood, and for many years he was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist society. We have never heard of his possessing any very great talents or any splendid accomplishments, though for some years he affected to be the Mæcenas of the late venerable and learned Dr. A. Clarke. In what degree he has acquired a character for piety, is a question which must be left to be settled by the Stockport society, and by the preachers who have lately travelled in that circuit. One thing, however, is certain-that for some years past he has been uneasy. Whether this uneasiness has arisen from the circumstance of other persons in that circuit having outstripped him in public estimation and in general influence, or from some other cause-though we are not without the means of judging-we shall not undertake positively to decide. We simply state the fact, that he has been uneasy; and addwhat he has himself made too notorious to be concealed-that, in a fit of desperation, he has committed himself, headlong and at all hazards, to a party most oddly denominated by themselves, "the liberal party;" and is at this moment competitor with Dr. Warren in his wind-mill expedition.

In the recent movements of Dr. W. and his clique, Mr. S. has seemed to think a favourable opportunity was offered for the gratification of his humour, and he has not failed to take advantage of it. One of his first exploits was to address an impertinent and stupid letter to the Rev. John Anderson-charging him with having held out an intimation of exclusive dealing, to the injury of a young tradesman who had been selling Dr. Warren's pamphlet, and threatening to expose him thereupon. The charge against Mr. Anderson was false; but no matter-it was assumed that there was something like a ground for it; or, as the quaint old bard of Manchester would say, if Mr. Anderson had not thrown up "three black crows," he had, in the judgment of Mr. S., thrown up something "as black, sir, as a crow ;" and, for the purpose of serving the Warrenite or anti-Wesleyan party, it was convenient to hold up the character of Mr. Anderson to public reprobation. Mr. S. proceeded, therefore, most magnanimously, to publish the threatened exposure in the Manchester newspapers; and all this, forsooth, under the pretext that the tradesman in question had been placed under his (Mr. S.'s)

* We have heard it repeatedly declared that one of the preachers of the New connexion has had an offer of £500 to transfer his services to the Wesleyan body. And this stuff has been credited!

patronage and guardianship by the " unckle,' "* to whose business he had recently succeeded! It is also ascertained, that, on the earlier stages of Dr. W.'s procedure, and whilst the plot was undergoing the process of being hatched, the warehouse of Mr. S. was occasionally the cabinet, or nest, in which himself and other privy counsellors assembled, as a place convenient for incubation; and beyond all doubt, the walls thereof, if they had only the faculty of being as communicative as their master, could tell of many things that would illuminate the subsequent proceedings, not having for their object the purity and order of the Wesleyan Methodist connexion. In addition to his secret co-operation, in the way just mentioned, and in other ways which it is needless to refer to, Mr. S. has thought it worth his while to grace the Doctor's public exhibitions with his presence; and to him belongs the honour of having presided at the celebrated meeting, at which the "Grand Central Association" was established. For his conduct on that occasion, he was duly summoned to a trial before a meeting of leaders and trustees, at Stockport. But, instead of appearing to answer to the charges of which he had received notice, he chose-in conformity with his own elevated notions of what is the rule of Wesleyan Methodism and of the New Testament-to refer the accuser to his attorney-at-law! Of course, his conduct in this instance was regarded as a voluntary withdrawal of himself from the Wesleyan Methodist society; and, for any thing that we have yet heard to the contrary, that withdrawal has given universal satisfaction.

II." WILLIAM WOOD, Esq., of Newton-street," the Secretary of the Association, has always heretofore been styled Mr. William Wood; but having "kissed hands" on his appointment to office, received on that memorable occasion the dignity of an Esquire, on the condition of his being ready, in his new character to aid in the defence of the fair fame of the 66 Dulcinea now vulgarly yclept "Methodistical Reform;"-and he has done his best, though somewhat clumsily, to fulfil the task which has been laid upon him. For many years, he was a member and a leader of a small class in the Wesleyan Methodist society; but he has never lost the prejudices against Wesleyan Methodism which he inherited from his late father-well known in Bolton as a zealous Kilhamite; and on various occasions he has shown to the members of the New connexion "no small kindness." To this we have no manner of objection. He has an undoubted right to open his house for their accommodation as frequently as he thinks proper, and, if it suit his notions of consistency, he has our leave to give his countenance to the same party on their laying the foundation-stone of a new chapel, provided only that the individuals who officiate on the occasion mind their own business; or, if they will allude to our connexion, have the honesty to speak the truth. But, if we thought as Mr. W., we would, without any hesitation, unite ourselves with the connexion to which he so cordially gives the right hand of fellowship; and not, as he does, profess a great anxiety to be connected with another people, whose ecclesiastical constitution and discipline were such as we were determined never to support or to approve. He is not generally regarded as having sufficient talent or influence to originate an agitation of any kind, but in cases where others have created any kind of stir, under the pretext of seeking reform or liberty, in church or state, he has usually been ready to fall in with them. As an instance of this, it may be mentioned, that during the memorable period when political radicalism was at its height in Manchester, he sympathised most warmly with those who clamoured on the subject of supposed abuses in the civil government of the country, and in the administration of Wesleyan Methodism.

For some years, he has been a zealous member and advocate of the Temperance society; and this circumstance might, for aught we know, be admitted to be in favour of his general character, were it not that in his case the virtue of temperance, having been somewhat too exclusively contemplated, seems to have wrought the effect of a spiritual intoxication; and to have actually swallowed up sundry other virtues, not less important, as elements of the Christian character and of well-ordered society, than temperance itself. Like certain other persons, he has chosen to make a kind of household god of this same temperance; and if any man will not set up an image after the same pattern, and worship it as he does, he anathematizes. On one occasion, it is said, he was so far transported by his zeal, as to call a fellow steward publicly to an accountthough a member of the temperance society in common with himself for the crime of having purchased wine, for sacramental purposes, from one whom he elegantly designated as 66 one of the greatest gin-spinners in Lancashire." We hope Mr. W. will re

* We give the spelling as we found it in the original document.

+ See the address of Mr. Ridgway, in laying the foundation-stone of a new chapel, in Peter-street, Manchester, on which occasion Mr. W. attended. See also a letter, in correction of Mr. R.'s mis-statements; both published in the Manchester Times.

member that there are other virtues besides temperance; and. as doubtless he is possessed of and practises them, we may reasonably expect that he will deal truly and faithfully on the subject of the cardinal virtue of temperance, with a certain ringleader of the Association and vender of the fire-water;* and that he will be careful to protest against his appearing henceforth as the public and accredited advocate of the "Grand Association," until he shall have been persuaded to exchange the gin-shop speculation, by which he has his wealth-however respectable and orderly the establishment may be-for some less questionable, though, it may be, less gainful undertaking.

Mr. W. has also been conspicuous as an advocate for the separation of church and state; and, to the great astonishment and edification of his hearers, at a public meeting, held in Manchester some months ago, he endeavoured to support his notions on that subject by the writings of the Rev. John Wesley! For this exploit, as we presume, he was honoured with an invitation to undertake a secretaryship, in furtherance of the object which he had so powerfully advocated. It is needless to add, that he was grievously dissatisfied with the proceedings of the Manchester district committee, and with the decision of the Conference, on the case of the Rev. J. R. Stephens.

In short, unless his own friends have strangely belied him, he was, about the time of the late Conference so thoroughly dissatisfied with the existing system of Wesleyan Methodism, as to be upon the point of quitting it altogether. But the out-breaking occasioned by Dr. W. was to his expiring zeal and love, life from the dead ;" and, by a strange resuscitation, he became all at once (professedly) ready to sacrifice time, property, &c. in support of the system which just before he was ready to abjure. He was, therefore, judged a proper person to be associated with Dr. W. as one of his cabinet-council, and, at the smuggled meeting held in Oldham-street, on the 20th of Oct. 1834, he had the honour of introducing the "three propositions," which were immediately afterwards circulated through the country, as the oracles of peace and wisdom; but which have long since been exploded to atoms by the tumultuous and misguided fire of the "demigods and heroes" from whose authority they emanated. From the absurdity and inconsistency embodied in those "propositions" it might have been supposed that some such wit as Mr. W. was the author of them; but it is now ascertained that they were the composition of the learned Doctor himself, though not in his own hand-writing.

In the luminous and eloquent speech in which Mr. W. is reported to have introduced those propositions, he ventured to assert-pretending withal that he had adequate authority for the assertion-"that hundreds of the preachers would thank that meeting for those propositions, and that the Theological Institution was intended to shape all the junior preachers into Tories, as to their sentiments upon political subjects;" but, on being requested to state on what authority these assertions had been made, he very prudently declined to give it.

We greatly wonder that such a man should have been chosen to act as secretary in affairs so cumbrous and complicated as those connected with the working of this "Grand Association." But there has been a fatality in all their movements, and there has manifestly been a Power above them, by which their counsel has been "turned into foolishness." We have no exception to make against the abilities of Mr. W. as a superintendent of a Sunday school, or as the leader of a small class of young persons selected from the Sunday school; but the idea of his undertaking (as his official designation would appear to intimate), a varied and extensive correspondence on subjects of ecclesiastical and legislative policy, is, to our thinking, ludicrous in the extreme. We happen to have seen some of his own written compositions, and we judge accordingly. The only way in which we can account for the selection which has placed him in a post so difficult and important is, that in the first instance, names apparently respectable were judged absolutely necessary to give weight and currency to the principles of the Association, and at the time there was no other name at hand to which the dangling appendage of an Esquire" could be so conveniently added. We were about to allude to certain letters written by Mr. W. to the Rev. J. Crowther; but we defer doing so until another opportunity.-(To be continued in our next.)

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* "I was at B. last week; I was told that D. R., in the middle of the Hull meeting, gave out, with great apparent solemnity-Jesus, confirm my heart's desire, To work, &c. &c. I declare it made my blood creep cold in my veins, that ever such words should be breathed from such a heart, at such a time, and in such a place! O, if these favourite lines of John Wesley had been heard by him in such circum' stances, I cannot describe the feelings of abhorrence, disgust, and grief which would have agitated his whole soul, when they were polluted with the lips which sung them that evening. R. and G. were lately at Leeds preaching for the non cons. Ah, dear sir, what a state must that young man's mind be in, who can descend from the highest state on earth-that is, an ambassador for Christ-and grovel in the ware house of a gin-seller; and, instead of presenting to the lips of his fellow-creatures the cup of salvation,' he offers and sells them a bottle of fire-waters!"-Correspondence.

Correspondence.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ILLUMINATOR.

دو

Sir-I have been much amused at the anxiety of the editors of that increasingly contemptible publication the Lantern, to enlist the late learned and venerable Dr. Adam Clarke, amongst those who favour the designs of the illegal combination. These men are reckoning without their host. The conduct of Dr. Clarke, during the long period of his ministerial career, gives the lie to such base and unfounded allegations. Agitators, like those who compose the "Grand Central Association,' were held by him in perfect abhorrence and contempt. The language which he used to designate their principles and conduct was invariably strong and impressive; under which, had he been alive, these associates would have quivered and dispersed: for, with the exception of a few, who, by a constant succession of duplicity, slander, aud misrepresentation, have been wheedled into this unhallowed confederacy, these associates are men, who, on account of their character and profession, have no hope of acquiring distinction in the Wesleyan body, but by anarchy, agitation, and revolution. In every age of the church such have been the loudest and most boisterous declaimers against supposed corruption, and wrong, and the patriotism they profess, is that which our sturdy moralist, Dr. Johnson, most truly characterised as "the last refuge of a

scoundrel."

Until very lately we had many such patriots connected with the Methodist society in Liverpool: individuals who were well convinced that no change, be it ever so disastrous, could possibly render their situation more abject and worthless; they are, therefore, constantly in the van of the destructives-the noisiest spouters in all unauthorised and illegal meetings-the most reckless hacks of the wildest of all ecclesiastical radicals, and the meanest slaves of every open and secret foe of Methodism.

These men in the estimation of the learned Adam Clarke, were unworthy of friendly intercourse, and though some of them, taking advantage of that charity which "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things," for which the Doctor was proverbial, managed for several years to conceal the cloven foot of malignant hatred to the constituted authorities of Methodism ; and, by fair speeches, to lead him, good natured and unsuspecting as he was, to believe, that they retained within their bosoms a healthy and sound Methodistical heart, Dr. Clarke looked upon these as the very scabies of the society-the incurable portion of the Methodist body, and uniformly declared it to be the duty and interest of every pious and sincere man, to keep them at as great a distance as possible.

On a few points the worthy Doctor differed in sentiment from his brethren. This fact we are far from wishing to conceal. However, throughout the controversy alluded to, the learned divine acted the part of an honourable opponent, and both parties retired from the arena of polemical debate, with very high notions of each other's probity and candour. The shameless effrontery and trickism of the associates, which have frequently and very justly been exposed in the pages of the Illuminator, never seized upon a more undeserving and noble victim than Dr. Adam Clarke. Rudely to gibbet him before the public, as opposed to the general proceedings of the Conference and especially in the Leeds case, is, on the part of the Association as unmanly and dastardly, as it is culpable and wicked in the sight of Him who reads the heart." Of Mr. Wesley, and the constituted authorities of Methodism, Dr. Clarke ever spoke in terms of the highest respect and esteem. To Methodism, under God, he was indebted for his conversion, for the means and opportunities he enjoyed of mental culture, and for all the eminence which he subsequently attained. The preachers always regarded him as a father, and many of the private members of the society, who never heard or saw him, have been delighted and profited by the productions of his pen. In reference to the uprightness of his life-the depth of his piety-the efficiency of his preachingand the range of his acquirements as a scholar, all of which were consecrated to the elucidation and right understanding of the sacred scriptures, unite to constitute him an honour to the Methodist connexion, and to human nature. I really feel, Mr. Editor, a kind of becoming pride glowing in my heart, when I consider that Adam Clarke arrived at Kingswood School with only three halfpence in his pocket; and yet, by unwearied diligence and active industry, he became one of the most distinguished scholars of his day, and lived and died a Methodist preacher! These associates, who have not hesitated to tear the venerable Pawson from his grave, and compel him to give evidence at which his holy soul would have shuddered, have not manifested any reluctance to proclaim far and wide, that Dr. Clarke was completely opposed to the

plan and design of a Theological Institution for the improvement of the junior preachers of the Wesleyan body. Several of the small friends of the measure, have been anxious to prove that the worthy Doctor, had been guilty of Warrenizing, that, he, before his lamented decease, with our dear and infatuated Dr. Warren, repented his having sanctioned a design "in some sinful moment of expediency," which was fraught with so much mischief to the best interests of the connexion at large. Those who were honoured with the personal acquaintance of Dr. Clarke, will know full well how to treat such a dishonourable quirk as this. Some interested individual inserted a letter in that compound of base calumny and falsehood of the blackest kind, and which bears a lie in its very cognomen, the CHRISTIAN Advocate, professing to come from a branch of the family of the late Doctor, in which it is asserted that he was decidedly and conscientiously opposed to all such institutions. At this 1 confess I was at first startled, unable to believe that our venerated friend should act like the dear Doctor of Chancery notoriety, who wished to institute a monopoly of learning, and dreaded lest any should be as larn'd as he." All my momentary agitation, however, became evanescent when I met with the following sentiments, uttered by Dr. Clarke and published by his authority, which I am justified in considering genuine, and far more authentic than any thing which may appear in the columns of that mendacious periodical, to which I have already too much alluded. When the character of a publication is wrecked, the testimony it occasionally volunteers is not worth a rush! The case is now simply the un-Christian Advocate versus Dr. Adam Clarke The former declares that the Doctor was opposed to a Theological Institution. Dr. Clarke “ being dead, yet speaketh," and he says what? "We want some kind of seminary for educating such workmen for the vineyard of our God, as need not be ashamed.""I introduced a conversation on the subject this morning; and the preachers were unanimously of opinion that somes trong efforts should be made without delay, to get such a place established, either at Bristol or London, where young men who may be deemed fit for the work, may have, were it but twelve months' or even half a year's previous instruction in theology, in vital godliness, in practical religion, in English grammar, and the rudiments of general knowledge."-" Every circuit cries out, send us acceptable preachers.' How can we do this? We are obliged to take what offers."-" The time is coming and now is, when illiterate piety can do no more for the interests and permanency of the work of God, than lettered irreligion did formerly."-"Speak, O speak speedily to all your friends. Let us get a place organised without delay. Let us have something that we can lay matured before the Conference. God, I hope, is in the proposal." Such was the pious and nervous language of Dr. Clarke on this topic, and those who are wishful to convict him of Warrenizing are ignorant of his unblemished character, and uncompromising integrity.

I come now to refer to the conduct of Dr. Clarke in regard to the Leeds affair; and, notwithstanding the antipathy which he constantly exhibited to instrumental music, am I to bring myself to the degrading conclusion, that he sanctioned the outrageous conduct of those men who only constituted the organ the bush from behind which the emissaries of discord might shoot their Parthian arrows? Sir, from his soul did he abhor the proceedings of those agitators; and, during the whole of the six days' discussion, which took place on that memorable occasion, Dr. Clarke did not utter a single sentence of disapprobation of the measures adopted by the Conference. His righteous soul was grieved at the enormous wickedness of the Leeds malcontents, and not a word of dissent escaped his lips, when the thanks of the Conference, by an overwhelming majority, were presented to the special district meeting, and the preachers then stationed in that town. If the Doctor had thought that the Conference was "doing the Devil's work," and "doing that work as the Devil wished," would he-the honest, plain-spoken, straight-forward, sin-hating, and God-fearing Dr. Clarke-have sat a silent spectator of those iniquitous proceedings, and by his silence become a partaker with them in their guilt? You know he would not! The whole Methodist community would rise and indignantly utter-NO! That foul slander which re-acts upon the character of the pious Dr. Clarke, is worthy only of those pages in which I find it; it is a scurrilous libel on the fair fame of that venerable man, and an expression highly derogatory to his reputation as a gentleman and a Christian!

On this subject I have not yet finished. Dr. Clarke's acquiescence in the proceedings of the Conference on the Leeds business, was not of a tacit kind. In reference to the just and well-merited suspension of Matthew Johnson, about which such a mighty fuss was made, the Doctor declared it as his judgment, that Mr. Grindrod had acted in perfect agreement with the law in passing sentence upon Mr. Johnson, adding, THAT AS MR. J. HAD FULLY ADMITTED THE CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST MIM, THERE WAS NOTHING TO GO TO THE JURY." After the whole case had been brought before