On this point the following views were presented by one of the members of Presbytery:

"The Scriptures (and our book of discipline,) distinctly recognise all parts of the church as co-labourers. They provide duties and religious enterprizes for both officers and members, and it is impossible to keep a church alive on any other terms, but the providing common objects, not only of interest, but of effort, because the only self-sustaining interest is the active. But our Book of Discipline does not recognise the coloured members as a distinct class, because when it was made their numbers were not sufficient to give the question importance. Now, Providence constrains us to take it up, and the only thing we can do is to affix to the code we have, the dispositions we need, and, as in heathen lands, keep the power in the hands of intelligence, but distribute the duties to all according to their ability."

The speaker "next entered on the subject of the arrangements necessary to the proper care of the large coloured congregations which belong to our country churches, and referred to his own parish, to show what difficulties in the way of miles and multitudes had to be met. These people need not only instruction and discipline, but especially that third thing which cannot be put under either of these heads-supervision. They need to feel that there is an eye upon them always; like children they must be guarded continually, to preserve them from bad habits, bad associates, and systematic temptation. They need a referee upon questions and differences that arise among themselves, a counsellor in perplexity, a friend to warn and rebuke in those smaller matters, which are not open to discipline, but prepare the way for it. Now, it would be an immense benefit, if the masters and their families, would undertake a larger part of this work, if they would use their great personal influence to impress prudence, morality, and piety upon them. And it is a happy thing to be able to say, as we can, that there is progress on this point: more masters care for their people's souls in this way, than perhaps, ever before. Responsibility ought to lie upon them; it must and will lie upon them for their servants' intelligence and good character, and no department of family

religion needs more urgency than this. But it would be very hurtful to establish a church relation between master and servant, or constitute the owner a church-officer for his people; and you cannot, if you would, for fifty reasons, of which this one is enough, that only a small proportion of masters are connected with our church. While, therefore, we would have the personal moral influence of the master as great and good as possible, it is out of the question to employ them as the agency of the church.

Can the Pastors and sessions meet this want? The same remarks apply to the session (who are masters, of course,) as to the masters generally. Can the Pastor? Suppose a Parish to be of such size that several lines of road in it are from 15 to 20 miles in length,-that from the most central point you can attain, there are rides of 10, 12, 14 miles to the extreme points, that 40 or 50 plantations are found within it, and a population of 2000 or 2500, among whom 400 church-members are distributed, ranging from thirty on a plantation down to one: Can one man oversee, instruct, visit and discipline the whole, besides writing his sermon or two every week, and performing pastoral duty for the white congregation? No doubt, employing a missionary, if you could get him, would help the matter greatly; and such men should be sought by inquiry and by prayer, that these wastes may be built up. But notice first that a missionary visiting a plantation once a month, a fortnight or even a week, is exercising very little of that supervisory care we have seen to be necessary. He spends his hour or two in exhorting, catechizing, praying with the sick, instructing candidates, rebuking known backsliders, &c.; how shall he add to all this the "giving an eye" to the church members generally? How much supervision can he really bestow? But, secondly, every pastor and missionary knows that one of his greatest difficulties lies in the moral and spiritual uncongeniality of the two races. This results in unconquerable reserve towards the white pastors generally, and provokes a most deplorable insincerity as well as reticence in the people.

"From all which it follows," he concluded, "that you must employ the most intelligent and generally respect

ed men of colour, as the pastor's assistants. Different minds will portion out their duties differently, and the distribution may be safely left with each church.

The arrangement which he preferred as the result of a short experience is: 1st, to have a 'leader' or 'watchman,' on every plantation; 2d, to have two or three 'helpers' not so locally attached, to assist and supervise the leaders;' 3d, to form all these into a class, teach them and receive their regular reports. The object of the first is to get the necessary supervision, and also by making a considerable number of leaders to prevent much pride of office; that of the second is, to give them the best possible advisers of their own sort, and to secure a better knowledge of them and their behaviour, than could otherwise be attained. The third needs no explanation."

The Pastor of the Walterborough Church, whose long experience and matured judgment entitle his opinion to be received with great respect, remarked that "he had introduced and continued the system of watchmen,' as an important ingredient in the religious management of the coloured population in our churches, and that he considered that, or something analogous to it, as indispensable to the successful culture of this department of labour, at any rate in our country churches." The Pastor of the Edisto Island Church observed, "that in his congregation they had no regularly authorized leaders or watchmen, but expected that the older members on a plantation should exercise a kind of supervision over the younger." On this plan the older members on each plantation sustain, virtually, the position of watchmen; the principal difference between them and those already siluded to, being, that they are not formally appointed and recognised as agents responsible for the discharge of a function to which they have been individually desig nated, and that it is not required of them at stated pe riods, to render a report to the pastor or missionary, of the state of those over whom they exercise supervision. The question of the appointment of watchmen, was at one time, considered by the session of Wilton Church. They were inclined to regard such an appointment as sitended with hazard, on account of the difficulty of seen

ring intelligent and trust-worthy men, and not feeling prepared at the time, to adopt the measure, deemed it expedient as a substitute, to request owners to report any cases of delinquency on the part of their servants who were members of the church. Information, too, they supposed, could be obtained by the pastor in his visits, by inquiries addressed to masters in relation to the conduct of their servants. This plan, however, is attended with serious defects. The masters themselves might not be connected with the congregation, and if they were, might not be disposed to inform a session of the misconduct of their servants; and the impression would be produced upon the minds of the servants themselves, that they are under a sort of espionage from their masters, which would engender feelings of bitterness and jealousy, where confidence and cordiality should exist.

The plan adopted in the Anson-street congregation is, to have several watchmen, to each of whom a book is given, containing the names of a certain section of the membership over whom he is expected to exercise a sort of watch. They are required at stated periods, to meet the minister and return their reports of those thus assigned in part, to their care,-to give notice of any who may have been guilty of misdemeanors, which would make it proper, either that they should be admonished or disciplined, and to give information of any who may be sick, and who may need the charity of the congregation. To meet these last mentioned cases, a collection is taken up at every weekly prayer meeting and distributed to each as his necessities may demand. In this point of view, the watchmen may be regarded as sustaining somewhat the position of an informal Board of Deacons, assisting the missionary in the care of the poor and needy members of the church; a duty which can but inadequately be discharged by the Board of white Deacons attached to the parent church. It may be incidentally mentioned, that although these weekly collections are made up of driblets, they are found to meet the expenses induced by the necessities of the congregation. In this connection, the interesting fact may be stated, that since the establishment of this enterprize, voluntary societies which had previously existed, having for their

end, provision for the wants of the sick and needy, have, in a measure, been relinquished, and the church itself, made the organ for the collection and distribution of a charity fund.

On the whole, in view of the fact that there is, from the nature of the case, a want of free and unreserved communication in spiritual matters between the two races, that there are times when, and situations in which the blacks are inaccessible by the whites, and that their circumstances and conduct can only be intimately known by men of their own colour,-it appeared to be the general judgment of Presbytery that a class of functionaries should be chosen from among themselves, whose office it shall be to assist the pastor or missionary in the discharge of those duties which he cannot with propriety or efficiency perform in person. These watchmen or assistants, (by whatever name they may be called,) might be appointed in such numbers, and distributed in such relations to the body of the members, as to the sessions and missionaries might seem advisable.

It deserves to be considered, whether the sessions of the churches, or in the absence of organized churches, the missionaries should not take the appointment of these men entirely into their own hands. The most godly and intelligent members of the coloured congregation might be consulted as to the best persons to be employed in this work, but their appointment should be reserved for the sessions and missionaries. Thus weak, ambitious, and designing men would, in a measure, be prevented from attaining influence in a congregation, and the watchmen be led to feel that they act not independently, but in direct subordination to authority, and under responsibility for the manner in which they fulfil the important trust committed to them.

II. The topic of Instruction came next in order, in the conference, and its consideration naturally arranged itself under the questions: who should be the organs, and what the mode, of the instruction which should be imparted to the coloured people?

1. On the first of these points, it was urged "that no one from abroad can understand the relation of master and slave, can rightly know what the Scriptures teach