zenship is not taken into the account. The laws of Draco, were the very quintescence of justice and mercy, if compared with this inexplicable system of judicial ethics!

The most infamous culprit is entitled to the benefit of a fair and impartial trial; and no individual, however talented or high in office, should be allowed to assume to himself the office of judge, jury and executioner, all at the same time.

The following extract from Volney's Ruins; or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires," upon the "Universal basis' of all Right and all Law," contains an excellent view of the origin of all justice and of all right:

"Whatever be the active power, the moving cause that governs the universe, since it has given to all men the same sensations, and the same wants, it has thereby declared that it has given to all the SAME RIGHT to the use of its treasures, and that all men are EQUAL IN THE ORDER OF NATURE. Secondly, since this power has given to each man the necessary means of preserving his own existence, it is evident that it has constituted them all independent one of another; that it has created them FREE;-that no man is subject to another;that each is absolute proprietor of his own person. EQUALITY and LIBERTY are therefore two essential attributes of

In conclusion, all who are not too deeply rooted and grounded in error, to be convinced by reason and argument, will be perfectly satisfied with this account of this part of my life. The people of Carolina, who are well acquainted with the parties and circumstances under consideration, are the best judges, and with them rests the verdict, which will be awarded for or against the proper person. For my own part, I do not feel daunted in the least degree, in view of their decision; nor have I at all been annoyed because of the vile and scurrilous abuse of party, and of sectarian venom which have been poured upon me. And I shall go on in the bold, but even tenor of my way, and perform the duties I owe to God, to my conscience, and to the church of which I have the honor to be both a member and a minister. I have but little ambition to gratify, no private ends to answer, and no desire but the good of the whole human family: and while public and private scandal, secret malice, and all the baser passions of the human heart are brought to bear against me, I shall stand firm and steady, and endeavor by the assistance of God, to walk worthy of the vocation to which it has pleased God and the church to call me. As an individual, my reputation is

untarnished: and all the worst occurences of my life, are herewith submitted to the world.

The great body, both of the membership and ministry, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, for many miles round, know me and they know me well; and those who live at a distance, are well enough acquainted with Methodism to know, that no man of a suspicious character would be continued in the travelling connexion, or sent by an Annual Conference, to labor on any circuit, station or district. And the Journals of the Holston Annual Conference will shew, that a charge of immorality has never been brought against me and sustained, since I have been a member of said Conference.

Indeed ministerial character, like female virtue, should challenge scrutiny; and with the fearlessness of conscious uprightness and purity, recoil not at the severest and most trying ordeal.

1833. This year our Conference met at Kingsport, in the month of November. Bishop Roberts attended, but owing to bad health, did not preside more than a part of two days. Our esteemed brother, Thomas Wilkerson, by the appointment of the Bishop, presided the remainder of the session. At this conference, I was appointed to travel alone on the Dandridge circuit, a three weeks circuit, lying in the fork, between the Holston and French Broad rivers.

In the commencement of this year, we had some encouragement. Our first quarterly meeting was very interesting; but considerations of a highly important character prevented the progress of the work in the latter part of the year. On this circuit, as on several other circuits, I had to expel some malcontents from the pale of our communion.

Some of these miscreants immediately set about the work of raising a party, and of destroying the societies of which they had been members; but fortunately for the cause of Methodism, they could get but few disciples to aid them in this fiend-like work. And although the few followers they did muster up, made it their business to cry daily, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"-"unfairness of trial'-"snap judgment," &c. they were unable to effect any thing save their own disgrace. And although they were untiring in their efforts, yet it should seem to me, that a conscious inability to defend a cause so weak, and to sustain a position so notoriously at variance with every thing like truth, should have calmed them down to silence. Poor unfortunate creatures! they did not even act understandingly, in reference to their own interest. Every struggle they made to involve

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others and extricate themselves, only made their condition worse. By this time, I presume they are prepared to adopt the sentiment, that man's whole life is but school hours; this world a great university; and the vicissitudes of time his preceptor!

THE METEORIC PHENOMENON ACCOUNTED FOR!--Between five and six o'clock on Wednesday morning, Nov. 13, 1838, it will long be recollected by thousands, that one of the of eye man, apmost beautiful phenomena ever seen by the peared in the heavens. This extraordinary phenomena, consisted of a great number of what are vulgarly called shooting stars, which, from common centres, appeared to be. shooting in every direction, except upwards, radiating the whole heavens, by leaving a streak of mild light on the unsullied blue. This occurred during my first round on the Dandridge circuit. And while many were wrapped in wonder and delight, in contemplating the mild sublimity and. glory of the millions of lines of light which were gradually appearing and disappearing in succession, during the continuance of this most beautiful of all celestial phenomena, others were seriously alarmed. Some predicted that the end of all things was just at hand; or that the prophetic period had arrived, "in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," and when the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up!" And some thought that, in the language of the General Epistle of Jude, they were "wandering stars, to whom Others is reserved the blackness of darkness forever!"

thought the meteors ominous of war; and some of one thing, and some of another. While, to cap the climax, some knowing ones among the Baptists, who, I suppose, were disposed to account for this prodigy in nature, solely on philosophic principles, said it was a sign of the downfall of the Metho

dists!!!

But, soon after this occurrence, a company of females met at a quilting, in the bounds of a circuit I once travelled, and while they were wondering, and guessing, and prophesying, &c. with regard to the cause of this wonder of wonders, a Hopkinsian lady remarked, "the whole matter has been occasioned by the death of Brownlow!" "What!" exclaimed another, "is it possible that Brownlow is dead!" "Yes," replied this sister Phebe of Cenchrea, "he has been dead several weeks; and by tight squeezing he made out to get to heaven; but he had been there no time scarcely till he raised a fuss, and was running about all over the good world taking

certificates to clear himself; and it took such hard work to get him out of Heaven, that it SET THE STARS TO FALLING!!" This, after my acknowledged and known dexterity in writing pamphlets, and in using up Hopkinsian missionaries and Sunday school agents, by certificates, I frankly confess, had like to have plagued me. May this good hearted humorous sister, when she gets to heaven, in obedience to the apostle's injunction, bridle that unruly member, the tongue, and not meet with a similar defeat, is, I believe, about all the harm I wish her. And in the mean time, should I be so fortunate as to get to heaven again, the next time I die, I will try and be more on my guard.

Query: From the circumstance of my having been cast "out of heaven," must I not have gotten there, upon Dr. Hopkins's principles of natural ability? Certainly I must. For the scriptures say, all who get there by grace, through faith in the Son of God, "go out no more. 39 And if all who go there on this principle, are in danger of being driven out, had not the most of the Hopkinsians now living, better do their "first works over" again? Indeed, editor Hoyt, of the parish of Maryville, in publishing his philippics soon after this occurrence, in common with other editors, remarked, that on a certain morning, "a phenomena appeared in the heavens, which greatly alarmed the inhabitants!"—that is, the inhabitants of Heaven; for he makes a full stop after the word inhabitants.

Now, brother Hoyt would have his readers believe, that the inhabitants of the good world were as "greatly alarmed" on seeing the meteors, as were the pious priests and Levites of Maryville, on hearing that the Cholera was in West Tennessee! And, I suppose, that if the priests themselves had not been "greatly alarmed," they would have taken the advantage of the occasion, as they did in the case of the Cholera, and thereby produced another "great revival" of religion!

But, if any of the inhabitants of heaven were alarmed on the morning of the memorable thirteenth of November, they must have been Hopkinsians; for sure I am, that no persons who have gone there deigratia, have ever been alarmed at an occurrence which could be accounted for purely on principles of philosophy. For, from the very constitution of the human mind, it is evident, that every branch of science is recognized and fully understood by the righteous, in the blessed world above us.

If the considerations now adduced be admitted to have

Y

any

force, and if the position I have endeavored to establish, cannot be overthrown, either on scriptural or rational grounds -it must follow, I think, that brother Hoyt is altogether mistaken. But who informed him that the inhabitants of heaven were alarmed? I am conscious of not having reported such a thing on my return to earth. He must have gotten his information from this sagacious lady!

Upon the whole, I have much reason to rejoice and give thanks for what I heard, and seen, and felt, during this year, and to regret that any circumstance should have occurred to prevent greater good from being done. But my regrets, though profound, shall be temperate and resigned, as one who mourns over a dispensation of Providence which seems to have been inevitable, and has been mercifully delayed far beyond what I could have expected. Deep, sincere, and lasting, will be these sensations, and mingled with them, the consolatory reflection, that I was acting correctly, and to the best of my abilities, endeavoring to promote the cause of truth.

Dandridge, and the country round about, in a moral point of view, is a cold, unhealthy, damp and foggy region! When in this region, I felt pretty much as I suppose Job did, when in the hands of the enemy. The Hopkinsians of this region, are fully as hostile to Methodism, as any set I ever met with. When they speak of the Methodists, they do it without ceremony. They constantly appoint opposition meetings, to keep their members from attending Methodist meetings. In short, they oppose Methodism in every way; and latterly, they have opposed it under a false pretence of friendship, by endeavoring to persuade some of our own members that they feel a deep concern for our prosperity!

Whenever they could hear of any one that had fallen out with me, or who had any slang to retail concerning me, they would flock to, and hang around such an one, like famished calves around a parent cow!

In a word, their employment during this year, with here and there an exception, was, to either ruminate upon the rugged hills of malice, or to skulk about in the hollow caverns of falsehood, in pursuit of those whom they sought to devour. And yet, after death, they expect to go to heaven. It is devoutly hoped they may. But the heaven to which they are now journeying, I fear, is a dreadful place, the geographical location of which is no where, and whose tenants are the haggard phantoms of an over-heated imagination!

"The Lord, the Judge, his churches warns;

Let hypocrites attend and fear,