The Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, as it at present exists, is constituted by Mr. Wesley's "Deed of Declaration," which bears the date of Feb. 28th, 1784, and which he enrolled in the High Court of Chancery, in which Court it has been repeatedly recognised, as binding upon the entire Connexion. It consists of one hundred Ministers, and of an indefinite number of others who are voluntarily associated with them; and was intended by its venerable Founder to carry out and perpetuate those plans which he had previously formed for the spiritual benefit of mankind, and upon which the divine blessing had manifestly rested. He invested this body with various rights; but those rights involve some of the most solemn and momentous trusts that were ever committed to human beings. To the Conference is confided the task of admitting men to the evangelical ministry in the Wesleyan section of the Christian church, after the people have, in their Quarterly-Meetings, expressed a persuasion that the parties are duly qualified for that sacred calling; of guarding the orthodoxy, the spirituality, and the purity of that ministry; and of securing the efficient discharge of its sacred duties; of appointing Ministers to the occupancy of the Wesleyan pulpits throughout the United Kingdom, and to the pastoral charge of the societies. The Conference is intended so to fulfil these sacred trusts, as to be a means of raising up a people who shall be examples of Christian holiness in all the relations of life: for the Wesleyan ministry was never designed to accomplish either secular or party objects. "I am sick of opinions," says Mr. Wesley, "I am weary to bear them.^* My soul loathes this page 7 frothy food. Give me solid and substantial religion; give me an humble, gentle lover of God and man; a man full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love. Let my soul be with these Christians, wheresoever they are, and whatsoever opinion they are of. 'Whosoever' thus 'doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.'"^*

The manner in which Mr. Wesley intended the Conference to fulfil its momentous trust, is to be learned from his own example; for a Conference with his Preachers was held by him every year through the greater part of his public life; and the method which he adopted in conducting these assemblies he unquestionably designed to be followed by the men whom he appointed to take his place when his spirit had returned to God. Now it was an essential part of his plan to subject his Preachers to a personal examination, not only when they were accepted as fellow-labourers, but at every Annual Conference to the end of their lives. The same plan has been strictly followed to the present day; so that every man who for the last hundred years has entered into this ministry, has entered it with this understanding; and this annual examination has included, not merely inquiries respecting the character and conduct of the Preachers, addressed to other parties; but, in all cases where it was deemed necessary, questions affecting their own views and deportment have been addressed to the Preachers themselves, which they have been expected and required to answer. This fact is proved beyond all controversy by the Minutes of the successive Conferences, page 8 which have been published, and are therefore accessible to all classes of readers. At the very first Conference, which was held in the year 1744, this kind of examination was distinctly recognised, and that as matter of course, as the following question and answer show:—