THE LATE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE OF REVIEW. THE Annual Meeting of the Committee of Review was held on Tuesday, July 27th, in Carver-street chapel, Sheffield. The proceedings were throughout characterized by the greatest harmony. Among the topics which the record of the year's proceedings brought under the review of the Meeting, some of the most prominent had respect to our Missions in Australia and France, and the project of a Mission to China.

AUSTRALIA.

In accordance with the resolutions of the General Committee, published in our Number for January, it was recommended that the REV. ROBERT YOUNG should be sent out as a deputation, accompanied by a Minister who should remain in Australia. This measure has already been approved by the Conference; and Mr. Young may be expected to sail in a short time. The Rev. John Kirk, 2d, who has laboured for the last six years in Manchester, is to be the companion of Mr. Young, and is to remain in Australia, and become one of the Ministers of the new church now to be constituted. The Committee have also resolved on sending six Missionaries, who go under the condition of staying in Australia for life. Of these, one is the Rev. Isaac Harding, of Darlington; and another, the Rev. Thomas Raston, formerly of Sierra-Leone. We need not commend to the prayers of our friends these important measures; for all will feel how deeply the future interests of the nations which will be raised up in Australia must depend on the spread of vital religion among the generation which is now laying their foundations. Mr. Young's

Mission is a momentous one; and we trust that future generations will have reason to bless God for the labours of the Australian Methodist church.

FRANCE.

In France, for many years, our brethren have laboured under great disadvantage from appearing as the agents of an English Mission. During the course of the past year, the Committee of Management, after carefully weighing the whole case, resolved on proposing to the French brethren, that they should henceforth become a distinct Conference; and, while pledging themselves to maintain the essential principles of Methodist doctrine and discipline, should have the management of their own affairs, and pursue their own plans of extension; aid of a pecuniary character being, as heretofore, given from the Mission funds. This proposal the French brethren received with cordial approbation. Dr. Beecham was then deputed by the Committee to meet them in Paris, and arrange the details of a plan for originating a French Methodist Conference. The results of this negotiation were read at full to the Committee of Review, and the measure was warmly approved. The Conference has now sanctioned it; and Dr. Cook is appointed the first President of the French Conference. Thus Methodism in France will henceforth take the stand of a native church; and we would earnestly commend it to the prayers of the people of God, that He may employ it as one of the many agencies whereby truth is spreading in that agitated country.

CHINA.

The case of Mr. Piercy, which we have already laid before our readers, was brought before the Meeting, in Resolutions of the Com

mittee of Management recommending that China should be placed on the list of our Mission-stations; with three Missionaries appointed, of whom two are to be sent out from England, and the other is to be Mr. Piercy, who is already on the spot. This decision was hailed with the liveliest satisfaction, and has since been adopted by the Conference.

These three measures are of an importance perhaps never surpassed in the proceedings of any one year. The Resolutions respecting China affect the prospects of vital religion in a country containing one-third of the human race; those respecting France, its prospects in the greatest country of the European continent; those respecting Australia, its prospects in that country to which at this moment a stronger current of population is tending than to any other in the world. These considerations are sufficient to lead all thoughtful Christians to feel at once grateful that Providence has enabled the Society to bring these measures to the stage in which they at present are, and hopeful that in the future they will be crowned with great blessings. In our next Number we shall give a fuller statement of the circumstances which have led to the undertaking of the new Mission in China.

FINANCE.

In the Committee of Review, as also previously in the General Committee in London, a very strong and reasonable fear was expressed that the proposed reductions of the grants to the several Missions, as forced on the Society by the inadequacy of its income, would injure and cripple the work. Of this there can be no doubt. Most painful are the complaints which reach the Committee from every quarter, of the inadequacy of the means placed at the disposal of the Missionaries, and of the want of more labourers. Under these circumstances, the duty of the Committee is plain. They state to the Christian public the wants of the world, and the uniform testimony of the Missionaries that more help is required. They urge on the friends of Missions a larger scale of liberality, and greater exertions on the part of Collectors and Ministers, that the case may be met. They also give themselves to prayer, that God would open the windows of heaven, and pour out His effectual blessing on the church and on the world.

Attention was called in the Committee to the desirableness of the immediate payment of all subscriptions for the present year, and the prompt remittance of all contributions to the General Treasurers, in order to meet the present exigency. We hope the suggestion will not be lost.

DEPARTURE.

THE Rev. John Albrighton sailed for Bermuda, by the "Falcon," on the 20th of July.

AUSTRALIA.

THE cordial thanks of the Society are due to James Wright, Esq., of Lynn, for the offer of a free passage to Australia, by the ship “Circassia,” for a Missionary and his family.

THE amount of contributions and remittances announced on the Cover of the Notices this month, is £4,489. 13s. 3d.

LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1852.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MR. WILLIAM DINGLEY,

OF STOKE, DEVONPORT:

BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, THE REV. WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS. THE value of religious biography to the church of Christ has long been acknowledged. As we are required to be "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises," it is obvious that, in order to imitate their virtues, and reflect the lustre of their example, we must know their holy living and dying, and trace in all this variety of experience the development of their principles. Those memoirs, therefore, must be pre-eminently useful, in which the words of departed saints are recorded as describing the work of grace in their own hearts, and exhorting the living to be faithful. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" The present writer regrets that he has scarcely any such material for the enriching of his sketch; and the information which has been orally furnished is also very imperfect. But the name of one so excellent as his sainted friend claims a place in the annals of the church; and no one can lament more deeply than himself that the subsequent account is not more worthy of its subject.

William Dingley was the third son of John and Mary Dingley, whose family residence was situate at Hall, in the parish of Linkinhorne, Cornwall. His paternal ancestry is distinctly traceable through many generations. It is to be feared that his parents knew little of experimental godliness, although, according to general admission, they were strictly moral. Their religious profession partook of the character which very generally prevailed through this country a hundred years ago. It is matter of history that at that period the Established Church was in a state of spiritual slumber, or but just beginning to feel an impulse from the apostolic labours of men whom nearly all parties now vie in honouring. The religion of multitudes consisted in a formal attendance at lifeless services, on the Lord's-day morning or afternoon. With the return of weekly labour, they laid aside their garb of devotion, to be resumed only with another day of rest. How great and blessed is the change which has come over the spirit and practice of many village congregations, since these days of formality and of darkness!

VOL. VIII.-FOURTH SERIES.

3 т