show not only his just perception of the case, but also his statesmanlike grasp of the future. His action to secure the appointment of a parliamentary committee to investigate the affairs of India in 1849 and 1850, proves that he anticipated the terrible mutiny of 1857, and also that he foresaw the probability of a civil war in the United States, or some other convulsion of political society, which would inevitably and seriously disturb the currents of trade throughout the whole civilized world. His course of reasoning was, that the products of slave labor are subject to violent and extensive fluctuations, and therefore it might be expected that the vast supply of cotton from the United States might be partially or wholly cut off at any hour. Hence, by the adoption of liberal measures toward the natives of India, he proposed at the same time to elevate their condition and apply a healthy stimulus to the cultivation of the important staple.

III. Viewed as a reformer, John Bright stands among the pre-eminent men of his time.

There are five principal topics which, at present, are under discussion by the reformers of England:

1. Pauperism. This evil is known to be gigantic in its proportions. One sixth of the people of the United Kingdom are the recipients of charity, more than one million being absolutely and hopelessly paupers, while nearly two millions more are just on the verge of the same condition. The problem is, whether, by legislation, anything can be done to remove, or at least mitigate, the source of unspeakable misery. The wretched poverty of this vast multitude, it is well known, is the fruitful occasion of crime. Wickedness of every kind prevails, and increases with frightful rapidity. Infanticide, the occasional conclusion of wide-spread licentiousness, is only one form in which the deep moral pollution of society reveals itself. Facts might be adduced showing the relation of the upper classes to the lowest which would rival the worst examples of lust ever known on southern plantations. The reformers claim that there is at least a partial remedy in a judicious modification of existing laws, or the introduction of new enactments.

2. The second topic is the reduction of the public expenditures. The nation of thirty-one million inhabitants is burdened with a yearly expenditure of £70,000,000, nearly equal

to $500,000,000 of our legal currency. Most men know that at least the great proportion of all public expense comes from the hard hands of honest toil. It must be seen at a glance, that a sum so enormous can be raised, from such a limited number of people, for a long series of years, only by the most burdensome exactions and consequent deprivation of the severest kind on the part of the laboring classes. Home comforts, pleasant cottages, books, education, must all be foregone; the prime necessities of life can only be obtained as the result of patient and ceaseless toil; and happy is the man who lives without the aid of charity, and thrice happy he who is able to secure a decent Christian burial at last, and not fill the grave of a pauper. The English reformers are resolved that there shall be a reduction of this frightful drainage upon the resources of the people.

3. The monopoly of the soil is another question of interest. The fact that there are only thirty thousand landowners in the whole kingdom, and that this number is rapidly diminishing from year to year, betokens a phase of political economy which promises little for the future security and happiness of the the people. Here, again, it is proposed to invoke the aid of legislation.

4. The oppression of Ireland is another subject of discussion. The dumb wrongs of ages are finding a voice at last, and if Fenianism proves a political failure, there are still stout English hearts which will never cease to throb in sympathy until deserved equality and freedom is enjoyed by the Irish people.

5. The question of suffrage, however, just now, commands the most attention. It is a singular coincidence that while the propriety of extending the elective franchise to the blacks is one of the disturbing elements in American politics, the extension of the same right is considered a fundamental reform in the politics of England, for it is fondly hoped that if this reform can be carried through successfully the others will follow as a natural consequence.

John Bright is evidently a believer in the theory of De Tocqueville, who says, "When a nation begins to modify the elective qualification, it may be easily foreseen that, sooner or later, that qualification will be entirely abol* Democracy in America, vol. ii, p. 71.

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ished." There is no more invariable rule in the history of soci ety the further electoral rights are extended, the greater is the need of extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength. The ambition of those who are below the appointed rule is irritated in exact proportion to the great number of those who are above it. The exception at last becomes the rule, concession follows concession, and no stop can be made short of universal suffrage.

Mr. Bright states the whole question of the franchise reform in a single sentence in a speech delivered at Rochdale, November 24, 1863, where he says, "There are 7,000,000 of men upward of twenty years of age in Great Britain, and 6,000,000 have no more direct political power than if they lived in the most despotic country of Europe." What he hopes to secure as the result of his project of suffrage may be seen from two other extracts from the same speech. He says: "I believe if the people of this country were really represented, if the wisdom and justice of the English people, and not the prejudice and selfishness of classes, directed the internal and external policy of this land, we should find the great bulk of our people raised in a few years to a much higher platform of comfort, intelligence, morality, and independence than has ever yet been known in the realm of England. I believe, for example, that if the people were thoroughly represented, five years would not elapseprobably three years would not elapse-before there was established a system of education, universal and complete, for all the people, equal to that which now stands alone in the world, that which is offered to the people of the New England States of North America." Again he says, speaking of the United States, " And there there are no 6,000,000 of grown men-I speak of the free States-excluded from the constitution of the country and the electoral franchise; there there is a free Church, a free school, free land, a free vote, and a free course for the child of the humblest born in the land." These are the blessings he desired to secure for his own countrymen, and he has faith that if once the ballot is put into their hands they will not be slow to rise to the full height of manhood's privilege. No man labors more persistently and successfully to accomplish these great reforms than Mr. Bright. He strikes hard blows at the aristoc

racy, the landed privileges, and the various time-honored abuses with which England is so liberally cursed.

As a reformer, Mr. Bright is in hearty sympathy with the common people. His life and early training have brought him into contact with them, and his great heart takes in their needs and their distresses. There is no wonder that he carries the people with him when we remember that he addresses them in words such as we have already quoted, as well as the following when he says, "I ask, shall we believe that it is an unchangeable decree of the Most High that more than one half of the population of this country shall live in houses of not more than £5 yearly value, and that their children shall grow up, in comparison with those of the wealthy classes, to a large extent uncared for and, untaught? that life with them shall be but one long struggle to live, and that the sunshine which falls upon and athwart our path shall only to them be the gilding of the land which they see afar off, but which they can never hope to attain." One can scarcely imagine the effect that words such as these must have upon the minds of suffering, starving, downtrodden men.

Though "The Times," in its issue of November 25, 1863, reviewing the speeches of Cobden and Bright, delivered at Rochdale the day before, throws out the heartless taunt that nothing had been accomplished by Bright and his fellowreformers, except to make bread cheaper and extend trade, though the aristocrats and privileged classes may hate and contemn him, he can well afford to endure the taunt of the one and the hate of the others as long as he knows that millions of the suffering poor, even the little hungry children, bless his name as they eat with thankful hearts the larger loaf his labor in their behalf has enabled them to procure. With his sublime faith in God and humanity, he may yet live to see the day when the desires of his heart will be realized, when England, rid of the evils which afflict her people, shall start forth on a new career of prosperity and power. God will be. his help in the future as in the past while he continues to serve his fellow-men; and though perhaps he may fall before the work in which he is engaged is fully accomplished, other laborers will be raised up who will prosecute to ultimate and complete success the glorious task commenced.

ART. VI.-RELATIONS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE TO THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.

It is a happy coincidence that the Centenary of American Methodism is ushered in at the auspicious moment when nearly thirty million people are rejoicing in the peace and security consequent upon the close of a protracted civil war, and the restoration of a long-distracted and imperiled Union. Scarcely have the echoes of the nation's pean died away among the distant hills, when from the courts of the living God there comes forth another joyous strain, celebrating the amazing triumphs of the cross. Amid the blended notes of patriotic and religious exultation there is heard still another song of gladness. It is no discordant sound, but one which chimes in beautiful consonance with the rest. It is the negro's jubilee melody. With grateful heart he pours forth his tender and pathetic strains, while the chains of more than two centuries of hard servitude lie in broken fragments at his feet. He looks up to the serene sky above him, and thanks God that wherever its blue concave spreads out over the states and territories of the grand Republic, it looks not down upon a single human being bound in the fetters of slavery. He sees streaming from some lofty height the "star-spangled banner," and hails it as the emblem of that mighty power which, hurling the long dominant slave power from its throne, proclaimed his perpetual emancipation. In the fervor of his devout fancy he sees culminating above that victorious banner the "Star of Bethlehem," emblazoned upon a celestial ensign, bearing the motto In hoc signo vinces, which bids him rejoice in hope of a more blessed enfranchisement than any earthly government can bestow-liberty from sin, emancipation from the chains of ignorance and vice.

At this momentous juncture let us review his relations to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in connection with the efforts which have been made for his evangelization.

The history of Southern Methodist evangelism in behalf of the negro may be conveniently divided into three periods. The first extends from the origin of American Methodism in 1766 to the establishment of the first missions among the