as from it more especially the society had sprung. The committee met on Saturday evening, June 5th. On the Sunday nineteen chapels were supplied by the delegates to the meeting. A lovefeast was held at Bath Street in the afternoon. Monday and Tuesday were taken up in the business of the Association, How many of the men whose names then appeared as taking part in the discussions are now no longer here. Bro. Towne was elected President, Bro. Wild re-elected Treasurer, and Bro. Wade Hon. Secretary. The report showed benefit members 2,087, honorary 482, total, 2,569; being a decrease of 29 benefit, but an increase of 21 hon. members; total decrease of 8. The receipts from benefit members £1,108 7s. 5d., being a decrease of £70 12s. 3d. The investment fund had sunk to £2,932 1s. 4d. A spirited and lengthened discussion took place on the Magazine, and although the loss upon it in 1857 was only £67 15s. 4d., a brother moved that it be given up. No one ventured, however, to second the motion, and it met with no favour from the meeting, which resolved to carry it on, hoping, under the new management, that the state of things would improve. As affairs were going backwards, one brother suggested that the £105 salary of the general secretary be reduced. That was not thought reasonable, as the duties of his office occupied the whole of his time. Besides keeping the books, his correspondence numbered 2,000 letters annually. A public meeting was held on the Monday evening in the Music Hall, under the presidency of Sir John Ratcliffe, Mayor. He gave utterance to a sentiment which has found an echo in the language of Lord Mayor McArthur, as recorded in our January number of this year, page 11. "For my own part, I consider that the duty of preaching the Gospel, Sabbath after Sabbath, as it was preached by the body of Local Preachers, was a duty of infinitely greater importance than that of any merely temporal office, such as I now have the honour to fill." On Tuesday evening, Bro. Chamberlain, in the absence of the ex-President, preached the annual sermon in Mosely Street Chapel, text, Matt. vii. 13, 14, “The broad and the narrow way." After the sermon the Lord's Supper was commemorated. We don't think the brethren lately have improved upon this practice of having an official sermon from the ex-President. CHAPTER XIII.-ANNUAL MEETING AT NORWICH. 1859. THE General Committee met on Saturday, June 4th. The brethren supplied a number of places on Sunday, 5th, and collections were taken. The annual sermon was preached in Calvert Street Chapel on Sunday morning, by Bro. Towne, the outgoing President. A love-feast was held in the afternoon, and the Lord's Supper was celebrated at night in the same chapel. The business commenced on Monday morning. A tea and public meeting was held in the evening. On the Tuesday the business was resumed, and concluded the same day. The report showed that the number of members was 2,481, of whom 490 were honorary. The benefit members' subscriptions this year amounted to £1,054 7s. 11d., being £53 19s. 6d. less than the previous year; but it is pleasing to notice that the free subsbriptions had increased to £1,046 11s. 4d., being an increase of £233 0s. 1d. on the year. This favourable result was owing to the commencement of a practice by the President which has been carried out since. Bro. Towne, at his own expense, provided collecting cards, which were distributed throughout the branches; and by this means £330 was raised. Any brother who now aspires to the office of President must work or give; or, rather, must work and give. The Magazine had risen under the new management, and the loss upon it for 1858 was only £44 11s. 9d. Nothing is reported as having been said at this meeting about giving it up. The balance-sheet showed that the stock had risen to £3,243 12s. 3d., being an increase of £311 10s. 11d. on the year. At this meeting it was resolved to hold a bazaar in London on behalf of the Association, at the time of the next annual meeting. The month was not allowed to pass away before a special meeting was held at Bro. Thomas Cuthbertson's, Chelsea. Resolutions were passed. A lady treasurer, three lady secretaries, and a number of ladies were named to form an effective working committee. In September we find the Bazaar Committee had taken shape. Mrs. Wild was appointed treasurer, Mrs. Thos. Cuthbertson, Mrs. Loxdale, and Mrs. Harding, hon. secretaries. These secretaries put themselves in communication with all the branches. Ladies' Committees were formed all over the country, and the matter was taken up and carried out with fine spirit. At this Norwich meeting, in addition to the election of Bro. Massingham as President, Bro. Wild was re-elected Treasurer, and Bro. Wade Hon. Secretary. IN MEMORIAM. BROTHER JOSEPH MASSINGHAM. PRESIDENT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1859. JOSEPH MASSINGHAM was born at Cottishall, Norfolk, December 4th, 1810, and died February 22nd, 1868. His life's day on earth compressed into fifty-eight years two months and eighteen days. Of the brethren who were elected to the presidency, Joseph Massing ham, so far as our record extends, appears to have been the youngest man, and to have lived the shortest life; only fifty-eight years. Bros. English and Cuthbertson died at the age of sixty-one. Bro. Massingham was converted to God when he was about twenty years of age, and became a local preacher when he was about twenty-four, and a class-leader a year or two after. Wherever he went in the first capacity the people flocked to hear him, although he had very humble views of himself as a preacher, and shrunk from engaging extensively in that work. But he had a very great influence over young men ; and many, under his guidance, were brought out as local preachers, and have done good service in the church of God. One now in London would do credit to any pulpit in the land. It was as a class-leader that Bro. Massingham excelled. He had three classes in Norwich, containing 130 members. One who met with him says, "As a leader I believe few could equal him. penetration, was sound in judgment, but kind, gentle, and winning; hence he gathered around him a large number of the youth of the church, by whom he was greatly beloved. Although he had a great many to speak to at each meeting, he had something fresh for every one; his resources in this respect seemed to be exhaustless, and the meetings were as interesting as they were profitable." As he was one of the treasurers of the Reform Fund, we frequently met in committee, and in the annual meeting, and we never heard him utter a harsh word, nor knew him to do an unkind act. He was a fine specimen of the Christian gentleman. He was modest and retiring; and although his talents and his character brought him to the front, there was nothing assuming about him. He is gone early; one would think too early; but "the Lord had need of him." (To be continued.) A BRIEF FAMILY TOUR IN DEVON AND CORNWALL. (Continued from page 151.) Monday, October 15th.-We were up middling early, to be in time for the omnibus. Our hotel bill contained charges of six shillings a day for attendance, and three days reckoned, making eighteen shillings for that item. As we arrived in the evening of Friday, and were leaving in the morning of Monday, and had been away nearly the whole of Saturday, having had dinner attendance on Sunday only, we thought the charge for attendance extravagant, and therefore, complained and appealed against it. The landlord, on having the matter placed before him, at once struck off six shillings, restricting the charge under that item to two days. With this we were satisfied, as we were with the comfort of the house and the courtesy of its occupants, from the landlord, and maids and all, down to the boots. We took our departure by 'bus at a quarter past eight for Bodmin Road Station, and enjoyed the run thither in the light of day, the country abounding with beautiful alternation of hill and valley, sylvan and rural scenery, with glimpses of distant mountains. Soon after we had started, on reaching the outer skirts of Bodmin, a clerical gentleman ascended our conveyance and took an outside seat. He was attended to the vehicle by the vicar, who was bareheaded, and looked the picture of health and good humour. He is a man of good muscular development, and of uncommon energy. His influence must be great in a small town, and that town the capital of the county. All the more to be regretted is the fact that he is a Ritualist, inculcating the dogma of sacramental grace in the ritualistic sense, and therefore, that of Baptismal Regeneration. But Cornwall is notorious for the number of its ritualistic clergy. They are gentlemanly men, valuing themselves as Priests of a National Church, which is said to be rapidly increasing the number of its adherents at present. No doubt its elevation into a Bishopric will have that effect for a while. All the more need is there that the Wesleyans, who are the most numerous of the religious bodies in this county, adhere with tenacity to their original simplicity and spirituality. It will not do for them to fall back upon Church forms and ceremonies. If they do, they will commit religious suicide, although retaining corporate and ecclesiastic organisation. As for conformity to Church forms in hope of laying hold of Church people and drawing them to Methodism, it is too low an object for a Christian people to have in view; and, if successful, would only be so with lovers of formality, and would have a deteriorating effect upon the religious body resorting to such methods. At Bodmin Road Station we resumed our homeward journey, and had a very pleasant run through the wooded undulations and arable lands of part of Cornwall, and the pastures of south-western Devon, to Newton Abbot Junction; but there we were disconcerted by the miserable confusion attending the transference of ourselves and our impedimenta to a branch line, which we had to encounter in order to get to Torquay. The doors of our carriage were locked, and we were some time before we could obtain attention from anyone to liberate us. Then, as soon as that had been effected, there was a rush of female passengers to the compartment we were vacating, who, in spite of all expostulation, persisted-some of them-in thrusting themselves and their luggage into the places for such things before we could possibly get ours out. Then we had to carry our own boxes, and bags, and other things through one of the carriages of another train on other rails in order to get to the train by which we had to travel, and were perplexed by there being two trains for different places, and ourselves directed first to the wrong one and then to the right one. When that was accomplished, we had to obtain tickets for our destination, and the booking-office was on the opposite side of the line from where we were. I went for the tickets, whilst others looked after all other matters requiring attention. The line is so much lower than the platform, that it cannot be crossed without a long round being taken to get over at a crossing-place. I had to hasten thither, and then a long distance to the booking-office; and there I was stopped and required to produce my tourist ticket for the main line before being allowed to enter. At last I got return tickets, as I supposed, for Torquay, having asked for such; and I had to run and recross the line, to reach the train. At length we got off, and when in transit, had the additional mortification to discover that our tickets were for Torre instead of Torquay, being a mile short of the latter place. On arriving at the Torquay Station, we learned that the difference in the fare was twopence each, and that we should have to pay the same on our return as well as on our arrival, although it would have covered our return if the right tickets had been supplied at Newton Abbot Junction. The blunder was the booking clerk's, not mine, we demurred, therefore, to paying the extra twopence more than once. We appealed from the ticket collector to the station master, who made the same statement as the other. I declared my readiness to pay the extra eightpence for the four tickets, but not to pay twice; and that, small as was the sum, I would submit to detention, or to have some of my luggage detained, rather than submit to an injustice. A good deal of altercation and explanation followed, which resulted in a promise to see us clear on our return. So much time was lost, however, that the omnibus went without us, and we had to engage a carriage to take us to the Queen's Hotel, whither we went on the station-master's recommendation. The charge for the carriage was a shilling more than the amount of the omnibus fare for four persons. We paid that, however, with more content of mind than in paying an extra eightpence unjustly. It was about one o'clock when we reached the hotel; so we got a light luncheon, as there was to be a table d'hôte at seven o'clock. We then engaged a carriage for a drive, and started at twenty-five minutes after We were taken a most delightful round, along the hill southward, overlooking Tor Bay; then by Babbicombe and Watcombe, calling to see the terra cotta works, round which we were conducted by a girl, to whom we gave a shilling for her service of half or three-quarters of an hour. In the show-room were many articles for sale; but we thought the prices too high. The whole process of the manufacture is much the same as that of ordinary pottery and china. We all enjoyed the coast scenery much more than we did seeing these works; only our driver thought they should not be passed by visitors without being seen. All the scenery is exceedingly romantic and wild; and it is interesting to look upon scenes in the midst of which William III. landed, when he came, as invited, in 1688, to rid England of papal deceivers and oppressors. It is a memo |