The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-04 00:00:00

PRICE 7D.

there might be such a case in waich, if the trustees were to
proceed according to the rules laid down in the deed, the
chapel might not be used as provided by the deed. If,
then, the trustees thought it necessary to interfere imme-
diately, the deed did not make out such a case as to war-
. rant this Court to interfere with the exercise of that discre-
tion. There was nothing in it said about the necessity of
interfering at once. His Honour then passed to the trusts of
the deed of 1826, the trusts of which he also read at length to
the effect already stated. Now it was observable, contnued
his Honour, that this deed refers to the use of the chapel for
the purpose of religious worship, a circumstance not to be kept
out of sight in commenting on the deed. His Honour must
consider it never was intended that this instrument was to
be construed separate and apart as if this chapel stood
alone. He must consider there was one general object
pursued by all the Methodists, to form one body, to be go-
verned by one set of laws. If, therefore, in progress of
time, the persons for the time being the trustees receive a
person appointed by the Conference into their chapel, they
receive him upon a tacit general obligation that they them.
selveS shall conform to the general rules at that time pre-
scribed by the Conference for their government. Whether
or not a district committee of the Conference has the power
of suspending a preacher, was made a matter of .some
doubt ; nor was his Honour surprised at it when he consi-
dered that:the persons who drew up the various minutes of
Conference were not professional .persions, accustomed to
prepare for all the contingencies likely to happen, but sim-
ple, straightforward, intelligent men, who had in view only
the exigencies of the moment: After noticing that the first
division of the country into districts oc%•urred upon John
Wesley's death, in 1791, his Honour read the minutes of
Conference of 1791, which enabled a district committee to
summon a preaeher before them in "any critical case."
But there the minute ended. It did not express what
was to be done, except that their decision should be
final ; but the natural inference was.. -that thereby
meeting full
power was given to the assistant of a circuit to sum-
mon a meeting, and for the to deal with any
case, to exercise its jurisdiction over the preachers it
the best manner it could, provided that nothing sl.:ould
, be done contrary to any resolution of the Conference.
It appeared to his honour, moderately instructed as he was
in the concerns of this society, that that which must be
considered the governing body did over and over. again re-
cognise not only its laws, but also its usages. There was
no doubt that the district committee had interfered in cases
quite 'independent of' morality. And if there was a case
so constitutad as not to fall within the limited jurisdiction
of the mixed tribunal, the diStriet committee had a right to
interfere. Then the question was, was there now a case in
which its interference was warranted ? For. supposing
there was a case, his Honour was of opinion there was no
departure from formality to nullify the proceedings of the
committee. Now it really appeared to him, that though
the court did exercise its jurisdiction over trusts yet
it had no appellant jurisdiction over .the local court' of
a voluntary society which had chosen to establish a tribu-
nal of its own. And that he was not at liberty, even if he
thought its decision wrong, to treat it as a nullity. But
his Honour could not think that decision was justly subject
to the vehemence of charge Made against it. He did not
think the charge of tyranny and violence had been made
out against the members of the district committee. Fraud,
of course, would vitiate any thing ; *but he did not think that
body had come to such an unwarrantable decision, without
any address of judgment, under
,a violent gust of passion
and prejudice, as to vitiate their proceedings. It struck
his Honour there was not very much weight to be attached
to the exclusion of Dr. Warren's witness from the meet-
ing. ,The matter in dispute required no witness. His
Honour was extremely unwilling to speak with the appear-
ance of severity of a gentleman such as Dr% Warren, whom
if lie belonged to the Church as a minister, his Honour
would look up to as a father, and though he were not con-
nected with the Establishment, would revere him for his
character. But he must speak without respect of persons,
and he must say the speech of Dr. Warren contained pas-
sages for which that gentleman would, in his calmer mo-
ments, be,sincerely sorry 'he had uttered. There was one
passage in one of Dr. Warren's pamphlets, to which his
Honour must refer :—" Was ever a more complete piece
of Jeffreyism played off since Judge Jeffreys went to
his own place." Now it so happened his Honour lately
had occasion to turn to the passage
,in which Dr. A.
Clarke has shown such a singular exuberance of Chris-
tian lOve in his remarks upon the person, Judas
Iscariot, to whom these awful words, " to his own
place," borrowed by Dr. Warren, were originally ap-
plied. Whatever may be within the compass of an Apos-
tle with commensurate knowledge of the fate of a human
being to utter, it was not, continued his Honour with great
emotion, for us sinful wretched mortals with our fallible
knowledge and feelings to dare pronounce final judgment
upon any poor human being. But turning from these pas-
sages, when he considered what situation 10r. Warren held,
and that it was generally deemed improper to make any
statement out of conference of what passed within, except
what was sanctioned by the conference itself, his Honour
felt convinced that no person could read that speech with-
out feeling that it went directly to create that very schism
which might ultimately, he feared, be the destruction of the
society itself. There had not been a case made out to jus-
tify his Honour's interference. In fine, he must say he had
been Very.much attracted by the discussion ; and he hoped
if he said anything that pressed upon the feelings of Dr.
Warren, that excellent gentleman would forgive him.
At the conclusion of his Honour's eloquent judgment, of
which we have given but a faint sketch, there was a mur-
mur of applause throughout the Court ; and, as far as we
could judge, we did not observe any appearance of undue
exultation at the result of his Honour's judgment.