lowing:-A page of the second Wesleyan Catechism, a hymn in our own Hymn-Book, and a passage of Scripture, are pointed out on the Plan of the Circuit, and the young people are requested to study these attentively. Catechetical exercises take place upon each, all being made the subject of examination, explanation, and application, at the weekly meeting by the Catechist, as time and circumstances may dictate. This plan affords variety, and gives an opportunity of recommending and enforcing Christian principles and duties under almost every aspect; whilst new topics are furnished weekly to both parties. Without confining the Catechist absolutely to this plan, where he may see sufficient reason for deviating from it, it is a guide, and will render his proceedings regular, satisfactory, and useful. The same method is pursued in private families with manifest advantage. It may therefore be respectfully recommended to the attention of the Connexion at large as worthy of adoption as a general rule, and as being adapted to secure great benefit. It would consequently be desirable that a table should be published annually by our BookRoom, containing the above particulars, and thus the whole body would be directed and assisted, and the work pursued with uniformity and efficiency. Ministers, Teachers, Catechists, and parents would know to what portions to direct their attention. This would secure unity of design, and co-operation in effort, as well as call forth a large amount of energy. The advantages which are likely to arise from the vigorous prosecution of a well-digested plan, are numerous, in reference to our youth, our Sunday-school Teachers, our Leaders, and Local Preachers, as well as to our members generally. As to our youth: Few incidents gave me so much gratification as my visits to the Cherry-street and Wesley-chapel Sunday-schools, in Birmingham, during the sittings of the last Conference. Here I found a considerable number of young females especially, whose continuance in the school for a long time On was encouraging. I took down the ages of the scholars in one class, and found they varied from about twelve to twenty-one years of age. These examples I considered proofs that the continuance of our young people among us, at least to a great extent, might be secured by the adoption of suitable measures. The neat and modest appearance, the mild and civil manners, the gentle and teachable spirit, of these young persons, as indicated by what I saw, induced me to think that they should in some way be directly connected with the church. But simply as scholars they had no immediate connexion with our body; and I understood that, from the two schools, about twenty would be honourably dismissed at the succeeding anniversary, and that nearly this number are annually removed in the same manner. inquiry, I was informed, that a few of these became Teachers; but only a few; the exact proportion I could not ascertain: but the rest are soon lost sight of, and it is unknown what becomes of them. Now, here is the great gulf between our Sunday-schools and the church;-a gulf in which im mense multitudes have been lost. Our youth must be kept in union with us. The best and most effectual way of doing this, will be a subject for full and serious consideration; but if we wish to promote the real interests of our church, and to save our youth from a thousand snares and dangers, it must be done. By pursuing the above or a similar plan, they would obtain a large amount of Christian informa. tion which they do not now possess. They would be brought under a restraint and an influence which would operate most beneficially. Their continued union with us would be productive of affection, interest, and esteem; and we might in consequence reasonably calculate on its perpetuity in numerous instances. Our young people would also become better qualified for Teachers in our schools; they would obtain fitness, both as it regards their know ledge and the right manner of communicating it, which generally they do not possess; and their usefulness would be promoted. The piety of members thus instructed would become more intelligent, and therefore more stable and influential. Knowing what they believe, and why,-acquainted with their duty, and the reasons for it, they would not be so liable to be "tossed about with every wind of doctrine" by which they might be assailed, or to be drawn away from their religious connexions and the privileges they have enjoyed. The subject is, therefore, one of surpassing value; and without delay, and with the greatest zeal, it ought to be entered upon diligently, and prosecuted with untiring energy. The importance of this question can scarcely be overrated. According to the returns made to the Education Committee, we have four hundred and sixteen thousand three hundred and eighty-three scholars in our Sunday-schools. Now, without any increase, and allowing that the scholars remain in the schools, on the average, seven years, then fiftynine thousand four hundred and eighty-three must leave us annually, on the average. In the next ten years, losing sight of any increase, five hundred and ninety-four thousand eight hundred and thirty young persons will leave our Sunday-schools. Surely it must be apparent to every reflecting mind that there is the loudest call for us at once to make the most effectual provision for securing the esteem of such numbers, and uniting them to us by the strongest ties. In this statement attention is fixed on our Sundayschools, because from them we have returns furnishing data for accurate calculations. But in addition to these, there are many thousands connected with the families in our congregations and our day-schools, who are equally within our reach, and over whom we might exercise a beneficial influence. But these may be viewed as likely to supply the place of those, in the former number, who may, after all we can do for them, nevertheless leave us for various reasons. Let it also be remembered, that a plan of the above nature will be as needful when we have got a dayschool in every Circuit, as it is now. The period between leaving school, whether week-day or Sunday, and twenty years of age, is that in which our great loss is sustained. It is here that provision is wanted to keep our youth in connexion with us; and there is this strong reason in favour of the adoption of the plan,-catechetical classes may be formed forthwith, without incurring any expense except in the purchase of a few Catechisms and HymnBooks; and these classes may be formed where, from circumstances, or the paucity of the population, it may not be practicable to form either a Sunday or week-day school. These classes may also be taught even where adverse interests are working through similar institutions in opposition to our welfare. That this is a question deeply interesting, may be argued from the following table. It exhibits the ages and numbers of persons who were charged with various crimes, and committed to prison, in England and Wales, in 1842. Under 15 years and under 20 15 20 25 30 40 50 60 and above 1,672 6,884 619 Ages not ascertained This table shows most convincingly how needful it is to seize the period immediately previous to fifteen years of age for commencing that course of religious training which may preserve youth from the paths of impiety. It is stated that the number committed under ten years of age is so small, that the period from ten to fifteen may with propriety be taken as the first stage of crime. Within these limits the table presents us with one thousand six hundred and seventy-two; but immediately after, in the next five years, the number increases to six thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, showing at once that the quinquennial period preceding may be viewed as the pivot on which the future life and character may turn. The proportion of the entire population under twenty years of age, confirms the above view of the importance of this question. According to the last census, there were of persons ten years and under fifteen years of age, one million six hundred and twenty-four thousand, five hundred and twenty; and of persons fifteen and under twenty years, one million four hundred and eighty-nine thou sand, three hundred and eighty-six; making three millions one hundred and thirteen thousand nine hundred and six persons between ten and twenty years of age, or a little more than one fifth of the population. JOHN STEPHENSON. Grimsby. REMARKS ON SOME RECENT OCCURRENCES. ON page 833 of your October Number, you administer a severe but just rebuke to the recently. appointed Curate of Marden; and very properly remark on his griev ous departure from "the holy counsels and example of his sainted father." It would be well if such instances of unfilial and unchristian conduct were of rare occurrence; but, unhappily, they are not; there are other sons of Wesleyan parents who, having taken Orders in the established Church, and being anxious to clear themselves from all suspicion of nonconformity, have manifested the most bitter and hostile spirit toward that religious community with which many of them had formerly sought a close connexion, and to which they all are under the deepest obligation. Your late exposé of the author of a pamphlet entitled, "Modern Wesleyanism compared with the teaching of Mr. Wesley," will not have been forgotten by your readers; and though few, perhaps, of the class alluded to are willing to go to the same extent of false and slanderous statements to which the anonymous, but well-known, author, “J. D.,” has gone; yet, in every instance of a similar alliance with Episcopacy which has come under my notice, there has been a total repudiation of the form and spirit of Methodism, and almost as invariably a determined attempt to weaken and subvert its influence. However much this hostility may be regretted, it cannot be said that it excites surprise. The Episcopalian Minister is taught to regard Episcopacy as the door through which he and the Papal priesthood pass into the sacred office, with whom it is the only scriptural and legitimate mode of admission; and that all Presbyterian ordination, by whomsoever administered, is unauthorized and invalid. How far such exclusiveness harmonizes with the doctrines of the New Testament, and the example of Christ, is a question on which I shall not now enter; the main object of this communication being to remind Wesleyan parents of the responsibility which they incur, by placing their children in the pulpits of the Establishment. Suppose them to be truly pious, and that their piety is not perilled by what is preliminary to such a step,-admissions which, I judge, in many instances, could not be justly made, will not their re spect for the constitution and discipline of Methodism be destroyed? and is it not to be feared that they will seek its overthrow ?-an alienation and attack, on the part of the children of Methodism, which, I am sure, no Wesleyan parent can con template without deep and painful emotion. It was my privilege to be inti mately acquainted with the father of the Curate of Marden; and a more sincere, ardent, and generous friend of Wesleyan Methodism was not to be found among its supporters; its theory and practice com manded his entire approval; and, during the long period in which he stood in honourable connexion and fellowship with that section of the church, he worthily filled every office open to the lay-members, and was highly and deservedly esteemed by all who had the honour of his friendship. Often did he gratefully acknowledge the benefits which his family and himself had derived from the institutions of Methodism; and nothing would have given him greater pain, than to hear that a child of his had so far degenerated from the course in which he had been trained and educated, as to traduce and despise the people he had been taught to love and honour. This feeling, I am convinced, was not peculiar to our deceased friend: it was, and is now, shared in an equal degree by thousands and tens of thousands who, through the ministrations of the successors of the venerable Wesley, have heard words whereby they have been saved: and as they desire no greater joy than to see their children walking in the truth, and in that form of it which has been so beneficial to themselves; so no greater cause of sorrow could arise, than to witness their abandonment and persecution of that branch of the church to which many owe all their comfort in this life, and all their hope of a better. I forbear to enlarge on the base ingratitude involved in this conduct; but it cannot be denied, that, in many instances, the sires of those unworthy sons owe their respectable position in society to a connexion with that people whom their offspring proudly scorn; and not a few of these very men, who now regard every description of nonconformity with such abhorrence, have received the sacrament of baptism from Ministers whom, under the blinding and perverting influence of bigotry, they pronounce to be devoid of all ecclesiastical or scriptural authority to administer it! We are fully aware that the most pious and prudent conduct will not always avert the evil we are deprecating; but when it occurs, it is well to have the satisfaction that it is not imputable to misplaced indulgence or culpable neglect. F. : THE DEATH-BED OF THE CONQUEROR. OUR chroniclers tell us how the harvest was waving, the grapes were swelling on the stem, the fruits reddening on the bough, when William entered the fertile land as he advanced, the corn was trodden down, the vineyards havocked, the gifts of Providence wastefully destroyed. An imprudent sally of the inhabitants of Mantes enabled William to enter the city. It was fired by the soldiery; churches and dwellings alike sunk in the flames; even the recluses were burned in their cells. William, aged, and unwieldy in body, yet impetuous and active in mind, cheered the desolation, and galloped about and about through the burning ruins. His steed stumbled amidst the embers like the third Sovereign who bore the name of William, the rider received a fatal hurt from his fall. A lingering in flammation ensued from the bruise, which the leechcraft of those days could neither heal nor allay. The noise, the disturbance, the atmosphere of the close, narrow, unsavoury streets of Rouen became intolerable to the fevered sufferer; and he was painfully removed to the conventual buildings of St. Gervase, on an adjoining hill. The inward combustion spread so rapidly, that no hope of recovery remained, and William knew that there was : none. Now ensued that dreadful conflict of feelings, never entirely absent from the bed of death, but sometimes so painfully visible; when, as personified in the paintings which bespeak the mind of the ages that produced them, we behold the good angel and the evil demon contending for the mastery of the departing soul; the clinging to earthly things, with an entire consciousness of their worthlessness; self-condemnation, and self-deceit; repentance, and obduracy; the scales of the balance trembling between heaven and hell. "No tongue can tell," he said, "the wickedness which I have perpetrated in my life of toil and care." He recounted his trials, the base ingratitude he had sustained, and also extolled his own virtues; he confessed himself, praised himself for his conscientious appointments in the Church, his alms, and the seventeen monasteries and six nunneries which under his reign had been founded in Normandy. But Rufus and Henry are standing by the bed-side. Who is to be the Conqueror's heir? How are his dominions to be divided? Robert, as first-born, is to take Normandy. "Wretched," declared the King, "will be the country subjected to his rule; but he hath received the homages of the Barons; and the concession once made cannot be withdrawn. Of England I will appoint no one heir let Him in whose hands are all things provide according to his will." Bitterly lamenting the crimes, the slaughters, the wide-wasting wretchedness produced by his ambition, he declared he dared not bestow the realm thus won by wrongfulness. But this reserve was a mere delusion; and he evaded the import of his own words by declaring his hope that William, who from youth upwards had been an obedient son, might succeed him. Nor did he rest in the mere wish. He turned him round in his weary bed, and directed that a mandate should be prepared, addressed to Lanfranc, commanding him to place Rufus on the throne; and the dying manhe who had just vowed that he would not take thought concerning the sinful inheritance-affixed his royal signet to the instrument by which, in fact, he bequeathed the unlawful gain. And he forthwith delivered the same to Rufus, kissed him, and blessed him; and Rufus hastened away to England, lest he should lose that blood-stained crown. And what was Henry Beauclerk, his father's favourite, to inherit? A treasure of five thousand pounds of white silver, told and weighed. Henry began to lament this unequal gift. "What will all the treasure profit me," he exclaimed, "if I have neither land nor home?" William comforted his youngest son, and that strangely, by the prophetic intimation that, becoming far greater than either brother, Henry should one day possess all his parental honours. William was now silent. Those who surrounded him had heard of alms and of repentance, of contrition, and of distribution of the wealth no longer his own; a little to the poor; all, save that little, to his sons. Of forgiveness, nothing had been said by William; nothing of remission to the captives in the dungeon, upon whom the doom of perpetual imprisonment had been passed. Would not the King show mercy, if he expected mercy? William assented. Morkar had been unjustly punished. This William confessed, and let him forthwith be freed. Roger de Breteuil had been rightly cast into prison, yet William assented to his enlargement. Wulnoth, the brother of Harold, a child when he fell into the hands of the Conqueror, who had sternly kept him in chains from his infancy, and Siward of the North, both now breathed the fresh air again; and William ended by ordering that all the prison-doors in England and Normandy should be opened, except to one alone,-except to Odo his brother. Much were they saddened at this hardness; many and urgent were the entreaties made. At length William relaxed his severity, with out relenting; declaring that he yielded against his will. But this act of grudging, coerced, extorted forgiveness, was his last. A night of somewhat diminished suffering ensued. He sunk into that state, half sleep, half stupor, when the troubled, expiring body takes a dull, painful, unrestful rest, before its last long earthly repose. But as the cheerful, life-giving rays of the rising sun were just darting above |