The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-12-30

masters to their slaves, and gradually fit the
slave to assume the position of freeman.
CATHOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES
The following summary is given of the state
of Catholicity in the United States at the
present time:
PROVINCES. ................
DlOceSeS. ................ 20
NlcariateS. ............'
bishops. .............. ....... 50
Priests. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. z, 235
CnurCneS z. 200
Stations and Chapels. ...........2,l2 Us
EccIesiastical institutions. ....... AZ
Estimated Catholic population Of the
United States, about three and a quarter
millions.
METHODIST CENTENARY.-The true cen
tenary of Methodism is the year 1860. DR..
Roberts, of Baltimore, has fully demonstra-
ted this fact from local as well as general
documents, and other evidence. The late
Local Preachers Convention at Baltimore,
appointed committee to consult the Gen.
eral Conference respecting measures for lis
due observance. 1t is happy coincidence
that the General Conference meets in this
grand epochal year. 1t will be, not indeed
the Centennial General Conference, but it
will be Centenary General Conference. Its
character should be impressed with the So
lemnity and grandeur of the fact.-Chr.
Adv. 8 Journal.
PREACHING TO SLAvEs.--The Newport
advertiser contains sermon delivered at
Providence, October 3Oth, by Bishop Clark
of Rhode Island. 1t is occupied chiefly
with an account of the action of the Episco-
pal General Convention, recently held at
Richmond, Va. He says:
Every State in the Union had its official
deputies there hundreds of clergymen and
thousands of laymen poured in, not only from
the neighboripg country, but from the most
remote sections of the Union politicians of
the most diverse ard opposite parties,
grounded their arms and clasped hands to
gether under the banner of the Prince of
Peace rival candidates for the Senate, l
might say for the Presidential chair, sat in
the same pew, and voted in the same way !;
torrents of California eloquence dashed
against the impassive granite of New Eng
land argument territories, not yet formed
into States, asked to be recognized as duly
organized Dioceses, sending as full delega-
ton as our old Atlantic sections and five
new Bishops were added to the Episcopal
order.
1t is, believe, the first time that an &c.
clesiastic body ever met in one of our South
ern States, in which every member of our
great political confederacy had its represen-
tatives. And still further, there has never
before been gathered in one country so many
Protestant Bishops since the Reformation
of all who hold jurisdiction within the Uni
ted States, there were only two absent
have not time to dwell at great length
upon the general proceedings of the Con-
vention ; or speak, as l would like to do, of
the qualification which l personally felt in
preaching on the first Sunday morning of
our service in the old Henrico Church, as it
is called, which has a double sacredness,
because it has not only resounded with
prayer and song through many generations,
but because within those ancient walls,
Patrick Henry uttered the stirring words
of eloquence which fired the hearts of the
fathers OF our Revolution, and nerved them
to such daring deeds. would also describe,
if knew how to do it, another scene, when
it was my privilege to address in their own
church, and that the largest in Virginia,
congregation of some fifteen hundred color
ed persons, most of them slaves. wish
you could have heard their marvellous music,
now soft and plaintive as the signing of
the wind at midnight, then breaking into
fierce jubilee of concord, laundering through
the house as though it would lift the rafters,
the whole audience becoming gradually
magnetized by the harmony, until they
swayed to and fro with a rhythmical move
ment, like the slow heaving of ground
swell on the ocean when the storm has spent
its force. After the sermon, learning that
such was the custom, asked one of those
sons of bondage to offer prayer. He poured
forth such petition to Almighty God, so
full of JUNCTION, so scriptural, so comprehen
sive, so simple and earnest, thanking the
Saviour that we were born in land where
His blessed gospel is revealed to us, with
no apparent consciousness as to the mode
in which the congreg alton happened to be
there,-that l was not surprised to hear the
Bishop of one of our neighboring New
England Dioceses, who was present, remark
that he thought it would be worth while to
transport that man to our own region, that
be might teach our good citizens how to
pray.
The London Shipping Gazette says that
in the first ten months of the present year,
iron valued at 91O785,684 was exported