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the Annual Reports of this F

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their labors, their disasters, and the
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tematic efforts for evangelizing the wor

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tion, at one time, of ten pounds or upward, st
and to a copy of the Society's Annual Reports The
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THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1848.

EDITED BY GEORGE PECK, D. D.

ART. I.-Reports of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, for the years 1818 to 1846, inclusive: in ten volumes. 8vo. London: Published by the Society.

It is now more than sixty years since the first Wesleyan missionaries, under the superintendence of Dr. Coke, were sent forth to labor in the colonies of Great Britain. It was not, however, until the year 1817 that the Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed; although, in the interval, the great work had been prosecuted with diligence, and attended with such success that, at the formation of the Society, they had in foreign lands nearly one hundred missionaries, and a membership of two thousand. Having before us the Annual Reports of this Society, from the year 1818 (the first) to 1846, inclusive, we purpose to devote a few pages to its history; hoping thereby, not only to make the reader better acquainted with their labors, their disasters, and their success, but to stimulate our own branch of the Wesleyan family to greater zeal and more systematic efforts for evangelizing the world.

The object of the Society, as stated in their "Laws and Regulations," is confined exclusively to the support and enlargement of foreign missions. The annual payment of one guinea, or a donation, at one time, of ten pounds or upward, entitles to membership and to a copy of the Society's Annual Reports. The business of the Society is in the hands of the British Conference; which body appoints a General Committee of fifty, including always the president and secretary of the conference for the time being, to whom is intrusted the entire management of its affairs, subject to the revision of the conference, at their annual sessions. This committee is composed of laymen as well as ministers, of whom eight traveling preachers, and eight other members of the Methodist Society, are selected from the country circuits; the rest from resiVOL. VIII.-11

dents in or near London, where meetings, for the transaction of business, are held monthly. Two general treasurers, one minister, and one layman, are annually appointed by the conference; and four of the preachers stationed in or near London are selected to conduct the official correspondence of the missions, and to perform the other duties of secretaries. They are expected to devote themselves, on the week days, exclusively to the interests of the Society; and, in common with other preachers, are subject to periodical changes in their fields of labor, according to the rules of the connection.* Very great care appears to be taken with reference to the appointment of missionaries. Candidates must first be recom mended by the preacher in charge of the circuit, approved by the quarterly conference, and examined and approved by the annual district meeting, before their names are placed on "the list;" from which those who are deemed most eligible are selected and examined by a special committee in reference to their missionary views

* The expenses of conducting the Society's correspondence, for the three past years, are as follows:

Previous to the building of the Wesleyan Centenary Hall the business of the Society was transacted in a rented house, in which one of the secretaries resided. In the Report for 1841, it is said, "that the new and very convenient Mission House, which they have now the pleasure and benefit of occupying, for the transaction of the Society's multifarious business, has been liberally and gratuitously presented to the Society by the committee and contributors of the Wesleyan Centenary Fund. In thankful commemoration of that fact, it has received, in union with the noble building intended for more general connectional purposes, which is placed under the same common roof, the designation of The Wesleyan Centenary Hall. The Mission House is a gift to the Society-a gift most munificent, seasonable, and acceptable." There is charged to the Society in the Treasurer's Report for the year ending December 31, 1845, for "taxes, rates, insurance, &c., for The Centenary Hall, £579 2s. 2d. ;" being considerably more than the rent, taxes, and insurance, of the houses occupied by the four secretaries, including their annual allowance for coals, candles, &c.

and qualifications. Having passed these ordeals, it yet remains that they be approved by the ensuing conference; and, even after all this, the General Committee, if a majority see cause, have the right to suspend the appointment. The plan for stationing the missionaries is drawn up by the secretaries; by whom it is laid before the General Committee in London, and, if approved by them, recommended to the conference.

The "Standing Instructions" to all who are sent out as missionaries, relative to their conduct in foreign lands, enjoin, among other things, cheerful obedience to all lawful authority; entire neutrality with reference to secular disputes and local politics; and a course of conduct that shall always evince that their only object is the spiritual welfare of their fellow-men. Positively, in all cases, are they forbidden to "follow trade;" and it is the expressed desire of the body by whom they are sent forth that they be "at the remotest distance from all temptation to a secular or mercenary temper." All their time and energies are to be sacredly devoted to the duties of their mission; "because," say the Instructions, "the committee feel themselves fully pledged to pay an affectionate attention to all your wants, and to afford them every reasonable and necessary supply." Every missionary is peremptorily required to keep a journal, and frequently to send home extracts from it, giving full and minute accounts of his labors, trials, discouragements, and success, together with any information and religious details deemed interesting. "Only," say the committee, "we recommend you not to allow yourselves, under the influence of religious joy, to give any high coloring of facts; but always to write such accounts as you would not object to see returned in print to the place where the facts reported have occurred."

The income of the Society, and its expenditures, have gone on increasing, from the year ending June, 1818, when the receipts were £20,600, to the year ending December 31, 1845, when they amounted to the "cheering sum" of £112,823; being an average annual increase, for the twenty-seven years, of about, in our currency, fifteen thousand dollars.* The disbursements, as per the first Annual Report, were about £18,500; which had increased, as stated in the Report for the year ending April, 1846, to one hundred and twelve thousand pounds sterling; or more than half a million of dollars.

The receipts for the year ending December, 1846, were, as we learn from a paragraph in one of the periodicals of the day, £115,762; being an advance of £2838.