The Wesleyan Conference has held its annual meeting this year
at Sheffield, and has discussed among others two subjects of general importance. A considerable body of English Methodists; and especially those of the great towns, and a majority of Irish Methodists, are anxious for lay representation in the governing bodies. The English Conference, however, will only grant Committees. of Inquiry, which are not intended, as We have shown elsewhere, to make any concession that can be avoided ; and as to Ireland, we entreat-their brethren not to be precipitate: The fish apparently wish their thixed Conference to be a trite legislature, with no Legal Hundred or other Upper House of Clerics above thein. A certain number of Methodist Ministers also wish for leave to eipress-their dislike of Establishments, that is, in their language, to exercise their rights as citizens, and on tbie subject the Conference has given way. Provided the minister carefully avoids "divisive" politics in Church courts, gatherings, or services, it kindly "declines to interfere with the action of any minister in the conscientious discharge of his duty as a Christian citizen."
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