Genesis, with Lectures on the Creation, the Primitive State of Man, the Temptation and Fall, and the History of the Flood. In Systematic Theology, the Classes have read the Reverend Mr. Pope on the Person of Christ; and the third and fourth parts of Watson's Institutes. These Text Books were accompanied by a course of fourteen Lectures on the Method, Classification, and Relation of the Theological Sciences. In Practical Theology the Class have studied carefully the "First Four Volumes of Mr. Wesley's Sermons," and those who presented themselves before the Conference Board of Examiners obtained, without exception, First, or Honour Class, Certificates. This was also the case with the Class in the third and fourth parts of Watson's Institutes. The Classes in Biblical History and Geography, have read considerable portions of the able works of Doctor Smith, on the Old and New Testaments. The Reverend Professor Reynar took charge of the Class in Old Testament History, and also gave instruction in Rhetoric to a number of Conference Students.

A commencement has also been made in the important subject of Biblical Theology, in a course of twelve Lectures by the Reverend Professor Burwash, on the Theology of the Epistle to the Romans. In connection with this the Students read the Greek text, upon which the Lectures were founded. The total number of Students who have availed themselves of this course of instruction during the year has been twenty-six. Ten of these have taken the Practical Theology and Biblical History of the preliminary year; twenty have pursued one, or more, branches of Exegesis, Biblical Literature, and Biblical Theology; six have taken the course in Systematic Theology, and twelve have pursued Ethics, and the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion.

In conclusion, we would ask the attention of the Board to the favourable reception of the Curriculum for the Degree of B.D., established during the past year. Four Candidates have presented themselves on the subjects of the Third Year, and three on those of the First and Second Years. Others have presented themselves for single subjects; and some, who entered their names, but did not appear, may come up at the September Examinations. By this course we believe a new impetus will be given to the cultivation of the highest branches of Theological Science by the Ministers of our own and other Churches; and we hope that ere long our University may be able to offer instruction, as well as Examinations, on all of these subjects.

Signed on behalf of the Faculty.

TORONTO, June, 1873.

N. BURWASH.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTIETH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH IN CANADA.

On motion of the Reverend Richard Jones, the Annual Conference Meeting of Victoria College was held.

The Reverend Richard Jones, Clerical Treasurer, of the College Board, read the Report for the last year, which stated the gratifying fact that they had got through the year with very little bank accommodation, and had reduced the liabilities of the College. A reasonable addition has been made to the Salaries of the Professors. The late Mr. Edward Jackson, of Hamilton, bequeathed Ten thousand dollars to the Trustees of Victoria University to assist in the endowment of a Theological Professorship, or to aid the funds of the College. The Collections authorized by the last Conference had been of great benefit. To the Endowment Fund, $93,309 have been promised, and $62,646 of that sum have been paid.

Mr. William Kerr, the Co-Treasurer, (and Mayor of Cobourg), then read the Financial Statement in detail. He paid a well-timed compliment to the Reverend Doctor Aylesworth, for the indefatigable manner in which he laboured for the reduction of the debt, which he was the main instrument of accomplishing.

A detailed account of the Endowment Fund was read by the Reverend Samuel Rose, and the Agents' Reports were read by the Reverend T. S. Keough.

The Reverend Professor Burwash read the Report of the Theological Department, which gave a very satisfactory account of what had been done with the limited means at the disposal of the Faculty.

The Reverend Doctor Nelles thanked the Conference for the expression of its confidence. He reviewed the twenty-three years which had passed away since he was taken from the Pastorate in this very City that he might take charge of the College. The appointment was not sought by him, and as an argument to induce him to accept

the position, the then Nestor of the Conference, (as he was pronounced to be by the Reverend Doctor Douglas), videlicet, the Reverend John Ryerson, assured him that he could not possibly get the Institution lower than it then was. They had passed through some dark days, but he was glad that they had done some good to the Country in training distinguished men for all professions, at least one hundred others had passed through the halls of their University. The vote now received encouraged him. The following Report of the Committee on our Theological Institutions, was laid before the Conference and adopted :

1. That all Probationers sent to Victoria College be distinguished as Undergraduates, or Theological Students; the Class of Undergraduates to consist of those Students proceeding to a Degree in Arts, according to the rules which have heretofore obtained in the Conference; all others to be reckoned as Theological Students.

2. That the preliminary Examination required of Undergraduates, who offer themselves for our Ministry, shall embrace Biblical History and Wesley's Sermons.

3. That in the Third Year they shall substitute for Whateley's Rhetoric, Watson's Institutes, Parts III and IV.

4. That, in case they proceed regularly to the Degree of B.A., they shall be exempted from the remaining subjects of the Fourth Year's Course of Study.

5. That the Students at the Theological Schools shall consist of a preliminary Class, and two advanced Classes for Probationers.

6. That Students presenting themselves for admission to the preliminary Class, shall be recommended by a Quarterly Meeting, and shall present a Certificate of such recommendation to the Head of the Institution, such recommendation to be made at the August Quarterly Meeting.

7. That the Course of Study for the preliminary Class shall consist of the subjects at present assigned by Conference for the preliminary Examination.

8. That the Examination of the preliminary Classes be conducted by the Conference Board of Examiners, as heretofore.

9. That the Course of Study for the Theological Class of Probationers shall extend over two years, and shall be accepted as equivalent to the present Fourth Year Course of Study.

First Year-Systematic Theology; Logic and Metaphysics; Rheteric, English Composition and Elocution; the Elements of the Greek Language.

A Student, who has already mastered the elements of Greek, may take in this year the elements of Hebrew, with the New Testament Exegesis of the Second Year. Those whose age and previous circumstances render it inadvisable to commence the study of a new Language may take an equivalent.

Second Year.-Systematic and Biblical Theology; Church History, or Natural Science; Ethics and Evidences; Homiletics and Exercises in Elocution; the Greek or Hebrew Language continued; New Testament Exegesis.

Those who take General Church History, may take in this year the History of Methodism and the Methodist Church, and its Polity, in connection with Modern Church History.

10. That Examiners be appointed by Conference, who, in connection with the Professors, shall examine the Theological Students on the foregoing course, and award them graded Certificates, as heretofore, to be presented at the District Meeting, and reported to Conference.

TORONTO, June, 1873.

CHARLES LAVELL, Secretary.

THE DUNDAS WESLEYAN INSTITUTE FOR BOYS.

At a meeting of the Subscribers of the Dundas Wesleyan Institute, the following Resolutions were passed:

That the name of the proposed Corporation be the Dundas Wesleyan Institute. That there shall be twenty-one Directors, seven to be Ministers of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to be named by Conference; fourteen to be lay Directors, nine of whom are to be Members of the Wesleyan Church.

That the Institute be incorporated by Act of the Ontario Legislature; that the incorporation Act shall be similar to that incorporating the Wesleyan Female College of Hamilton.

That the Capital Stock of the Corporation shall be Forty thousand dollars, divided into Eight hundred Shares of $50 each.

That a Call be made on account of Stock now subscribed of twenty per cent., and that the same shall be payable into the Office of the Canadian Bank of Commerce to the credit of the Treasurer, on or before the tenth day of February, 1873.

A Meeting of the Directors was held at the Institute on the 14th of February, 1873, at which it was,

Resolved, That the Plans and Specifications to be procured for the addition to the Institute be for the accommodation of One hundred Boarders.

ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE CONFERENCE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH.

Our University at Cobourg, from whose Halls have gone forth so many of your Sons, thoroughly equipped for the warfare of life, and are found in the pulpits and foremost places of the land, was never more prosperous, nor gave brighter augury of future success than at present. A Theological Department has, through the liberality of kind friends, been established at Cobourg, and at Montreal, which we commend to your sympathy and support. Your Female College at Hamilton, under the successful government of the Reverend Doctor Rice, is accomplishing a great work in imparting the highest Christian culture to a large number of your Daughters, and investing them with most potent influence for good in their future home circles, which cannot fail to bless the Church and the world. Institutions at Dundas, in Ontario, and in Stanstead, in Quebec, are also inaugurated under able Governors for the higher education of your young people, and we ask your prayers that the Divine Blessing may rest upon these enterprises, that they may be eminently successful in imparting a sound religious education, and thus advance the cause of truth and righteousness.

ADDRESS AT THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION, 1873, BY DOCTOR GOLDWIN SMITH.

He said: When present on this occasion at the distribution of the Honours and Prizes of a University, his mind travelled back to that old romantic City by the side of the Thames, full of ancient Buildings and ancient memories; and, although, we could not bring that City here, nor those academical Institutions, we must provide such Institutions as were suitable to the needs of the Country, such Institutions as he felt had been provided here. It was not easy to select a theme for an occasion like the present. All persons had assented to the fact that high education was most desirable, and had an immense effect upon national culture; but there was one thought that suggested itself, that as one conferred Prizes upon the most distinguished Students of the University, and as those who had taken these Prizes were no doubt most highly gifted with talent, they had also the largest measure of intellectual responsibility and liabilities; and it was, therefore, with a feeling of great interest and with no small emotion that one saw them going forth into a world so full of intellectual difficulty, doubt, and danger, as the world at present is. Our day appeared beyond all preceding days to be filled with general and especially with religious doubt. Perhaps in appearance the excessive scepticism and disturbance of our day were greater than in reality. Sometimes what we took for an increase of crime was merely an increase of the detection of it; and in the same way, what we took to be an increase of scepticism and difficulty was merely an increase in the means of its detection. We must recollect that this was the first age of the world in which there had been perfect freedom and liberty of thought. It, perhaps, was true that the diversity of opinion and amount of controversy were unequalled in the history of the world, and some people looked upon this as portending some great convulsion; perhaps, however, the convulsion would not come. He compared this state of things to crossing the Alps, where, as one advances through its mountain passes, there appears every now and again a point which you fancy having once reached, you can go no further; still, on reaching that point, you are able to continue your journey as before. Such was the course of history. Mankind always

appeared to be approaching the brink of some great precipice, or about to encounter some insuperable barrier, but as soon as they arrived at it, the path was again clear; and thus those difficulties which threaten the very foundations of society will probably in the same manner disappear; still, there could be no doubt that these were days of great intellectual difficulties, and that questions had been raised such as had never been raised before; that the moral, intellectual and religious principles of this world appeared to be shaken; and the best preparation for entering into and meeting the difficulties of such an age was a sound education, which qualified those who had received it for taking a calm and intelligent view of those problems presented to them. With this preparation he hoped the Students present to-day would go forth into the world; but there were perhaps one or two remarks for him to address to Students who, like them, were about to find themselves launched upon this troublesome world. He might, perhaps, speak with some feeling upon this subject, because every one who was an Oxford Student in his time must have found what the pressure of such disturbances was. In the first place, let us not exaggerate our difficulties. Let us not think when some new theory is propounded, when some new discovery is made, that its influence is more extended than it really is, that it is going to overthrow beliefs and convictions which it does not touch. All the world is now disturbed by the Darwinian hypothesis. It was a very ingenious one, and one which was not likely to pass away without leaving some little residuum of truth behind; that it was not essentially true already appeared. It was a hypothesis of perpetual and universal transition, but Darwin had not yet been able to produce from the existing fauna or flora, or from the archives of the rocks, one really transitional form. But, granting the truth of the Darwinian theory with respect to the descent of man, he, (Mr. Smith), wished people would pay more attention to the ascent of man. Still, what mattered it with regard to our moral actions, or conduct, in life how we became man? We all knew that we had passed through inferior and rudimentary phases; we knew that man was originally created out of the dust of the earth; but why should that lead us to aim the less high, or prevent our doing anything less than virtue has hitherto done? If we only considered for a moment, we would see that that hypothesis had really no bearing upon our moral life. He, (Mr. Smith), had himself seen in his time things of this sort, which seemed at first very formidable and threatening, pass away. He remembered that when a student at Oxford, and attending the lectures of Doctor Buckland, who was, in one sense, the founder of English Geology, that gentleman was driven to all sorts of subterfuges of language to draw people's attention away from the fact that he believed the world to be older than it had been thought to be. We had now accepted Doctor Buckland's theory, and what had happened? The great truth with regard to the unity of the Deity and the fact that the world was created had not been in any way affected by that change; but on the contrary, it was now more evident that before. Again, the question as to certain moral difficulties in the Old Testament disturbed people's minds very greatly, and he recollected the senation made when the Reverend Doctor Monsell, the late Dean of St. Paul's, brought out a series of Lectures to show that in point of fact man could know nothing of God, and, therefore, was not able to judge of His divinity. To this a very forcible answer was of course given, that if a man knew nothing of God, he could know nothing about His goodness. These facts had led him, (Mr. Smith), to observe, to use a mythological figure, that the spear of Achilles often healed its own wound, that we must wait and let the science develop itself, and, when it has run its course, it will also heal the wounds it has itself made, and we would see that God is the Author of all truth. He would say to those who were about to pass through the same ordeal he passed through as a Student, Do not be much overcome by the dominant opinion of the time; preserve your independence and your peace of mind, and keep yourselves cool. Well he remembered the influence of the Reverend Doctor Newman, when Tractarianism was at its height. It was then high and dry Establishmentarianism. It possibly was high, it certainly was very dry. Doctor Newman, with all the poetry of the new Catholicism, with all the poetry of Gothic architecture, took their young

hearts by storm, and they thought that it was the culmination of all movements, and that it was the one which was to regenerate the world; and what was the result? Doctor Newman's party was now broken up, and its intellectual wrecks were cast upon every shore. Then he remembered the influence exercised upon the young mind by the first publication of the philosophy of Comte, dressed out as it was with the most imposing generalities of science and history. Now all Writers of the same school of thought as Comte regarded his theory as a thing of the past. They admitted that it had stimulated enquiry, but, on its ruins, they founded other theories. The same with regard to Buckle's theory; nobody now believed that all the moral, spiritual, and social life of man are deducible from his primitive food. They could not help to a certain extent surrendering themselves to the influence of a great theory and of a great teacher of the hour, but they should still remember how many clouds have passed the sun, and that each successive doubt, or perplexity, that arose might in its turn be another passing cloud. They should remember that the great problems now before the world are problems requiring the most laborious investigation, and are not to be solved in a lifetime; and they must therefore be patient, they must remember that if they knew anything of themselves, they were in the hands of a Divine Justice, Who would not lay on them burdens heavier than they were able to bear. They could themselves greatly aid the enquiry, not by taking part in it, but by keeping their minds open, by lending a willing ear to truth, no matter from what quarter it came, and by spreading around them a spirit of fairness, toleration, and candour, and putting down whatever is the reverse. He learned that in this University there were Students of different Denominations; and he presented himself before such an University with pleasure, because he was convinced that after all our religious divisions and dissensions the time was coming when we should remember the only One name mentioned in the Gospel,-remember that we are not Unitarians, or Episcopalians, or Methodists, or Presbyterians, but Christians and nothing else. And they might depend upon it that it was the simple morality of the Gospel, without anything which, in the course of eventful ages, had been laid upon it, and the simple type of character presented to them in that Gospel, which would carry then through these perplexing times. Still he thought without disparagement to any other Church, the Wesleyan Methodists had a considerable advantage over other Religious Bodies. All except the Wesleyan Methodist Churches had been more or less in antagonism to other Christian Churches, but the Church of Wesley was founded in antagonism only to irreligion and immorality. It was founded in the Eighteenth century, when nearly all the controversies between the different Churches were almost dead, and when the struggle was only one against the vice of the world.-The Wesleyan Church had a great advantage in its reuniting and harmonizing influence over all the other Churches of Christendom. After a few further remarks, the learned Professor concluded by expressing his cordial wishes for the success of Victoria University, and those who were just going forth from it.

The Reverend Doctor Ryerson said it was nearly forty years since he went to England and obtained from George the Fourth a Charter for Victoria University, the first Charter granted to any Institution of that description outside of the Church of England. At the same time he received by the authority of the Imperial Government a Grant of £4,000; but the chief work in the establishment, erection, and maintenance of the University through years of great difficulty and deprivation, and of not a little opposition, was done by the people of Canada. At the time he was in England he obtained from His Majesty the first Charter in favour of a Wesleyan Institution that had ever been granted. He had set it on an entirely free footing, having repudiated anything like tests. He might appeal to all the chiefs of this Institution, and to all those who had received their intellectual training in it, whether it was not among the greatest advantages of its administration that its teachings were associated with all those principles of our common Christianity which are the primary source of the highest social progress of man, and were also of incalculable worth to the heart and mental culture. He pointed out the advantages of the extension of Christian sympathy,