James Everett : a Biography. By Richard Chew. (Hodder and
Stoughton.)—Before opening this book, we supposed that we were going to read the life of a well-known American politician. But Mr. Everett,. whom Mr. Chew describes, was a Wesleyan minister, well known in his time, and probably still remembered by many. His name will recall to some of our readers the once famous controversy of the "Fly Leaves," and the rebellion against the sacerdotal rule of the Conference of which that publication was the cause or the occasion. Mr. Everett was one of the three ministers expelled from the Wesleyan body at that time, and he is, of course, regarded by the "Free Methodist Church," which took its rise in that controversy, as one of its founders. This fact is: sufficient justification for even the copious biographical details with which Mr. Chew has filled his 550 closely printed pages. Many readers will follow with interest the career of one of the founders of their religious. organisation, though the public will probably feel that they would be content with a much briefer record, and even endured to have missed it altogether. Mr. Everett was a man of considerable culture ; as a poet, if that term be somewhat loosely employed, he had some taste and skill. As a preacher and speaker he seems to have been effective and popular.. To discuss his conduct in the most important action of his life would bring us into a region of controversy with with we are not acquainted. It is easy to see from the biographer that Mr. Everett's discontent with the rule of the Conference was of long standing, and was not unmixed with some private grievances. Generally, be was, we should say, a man of independent spirit, not so patient of contract as the oligarchical rule of Wesleyanism, as things were then, demanded. There is little to call for remark in the way in which Mr. Chew has performed his duty. He starts the very first lino in the determination to let the subject of his biography speak, wherever it is possible, for himself, and carries it out to the end. Of his own observations wo shall quote one only, as a. proof of how widely the Methodism of the present day has departed from the spirit of its founder:—" When will Christian people," he says, speaking of the young Everett's confirmation, "awake to the childish folly and superstitious tendencies of such practice ?" What would John Wesley have said, if he had heard Confirmation called a childish folly ?
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