The series of meetings constituting this Convention were held in the Mechanics' Institution, Darlington, on Wednesday and Thursday, July 26 and 27, 1865. Seeing that those present were called together by special invitation, the public not being admitted, the attendance was highly gratifying and satisfactory to its promoters. The following names of those who were present and took part at the various sessions have been recorded: Mr John Hodge and Mrs Hodge, Prospect Place; Mr Joseph Dixon and Mrs Dixon, Bond-gate; Mr Thomas Watson and Mrs Watson, Mr D. Richmond, and Miss Emma Vasey, all of Darlington; Rev. J. M. Spear and Mrs Spear, 146 Albany Street, and Mr J. Bums, Progressive Library, London; Mr M. Heslop, phonographic reporter to Mr L. N. Fowler, professor of Phrenology; Mr A. Gardner and Miss Gardner, Seaham Street; Dr M'Leod, 4 Brunswick Place, and James Carpenter, Newcastle-on-Tyne; Mr King, York; Mr George Armitage, Richmond, Yorkshire; Mr N. Morgan, lecturer and practical mesmerist, Charles Street, Monkwearmouth; Mr John Cowley and Mrs Cowley, 7 Robinson Street, West Hartlepool; Mr G. R. Robinson, Sunderland; Mr Armstrong, Newcastle; Mr Wise, Gilling.

Letters of sympathy with the objects of the Convention, and regret at inability to be present, were received by Mr Hodge and other friends, some of which were read before the meeting. Amongst those who expressed themselves in this manner may be named the Rev. A. K. M'Sorley; Mr J. Chapman and Mr Houghton, of Huddersfield; A. Leighton, Esq., Richard Bewly, Esq., and J. Wason, Esq., solicitor, Liverpool; A. Glendinning, Esq., Port-Glasgow; J. Scott, Esq., Belfast; Mr E. B. Craddock, Mold.

The First Session

Assembled shortly after ten o'clock on Wednesday morning. The proceedings were opened by Mr Hodge being called to the Chair, and Messrs Bums and Heslop being appointed Secretaries. Mr Hodge, page 6 on taking the chair, referred to the call in the hands of all present, and which was as follows:

"The call for this meeting is designed to meet one of the real wants of society. Earnest and thinking minds are scattered through our community, whose aspirations for truth and freedom have destroyed their affinity for the proscriptive spirit of popular religious organisations: such minds feel the want of congenial communion in an atmosphere of freedom, and need such awakening as only the association of kindred minds can inspire.

"You are invited to meet with us and fully reason on any subject that pertains to human happiness. Satisfied that we have long enough been taught the essential wickedness of human nature, we are equally satisfied that the time has now come when we should meet, at least for once, to exchange the truths which the infinite within us has taught, and to read in each other's hearts the grand reality that human nature is essentially good. So shall we consecrate the time and place, while we aid each other in the good work of attaining a higher, better, and more harmonious life.

"The claims of Spiritualism and its practical application to human improvement, will furnish an ample field for remark in the meeting. All speakers will be invited freely to express their views, so far as time and proper rules of order will admit. Speakers who desire to address the Convention at length on any subject or specific topic within the general scope of its purposes, are requested to apprize the Secretary in advance, in order that a suitable time may be assigned them.

"Let none come expecting to witness spirit manifestations, but rather let all endeavour to manifest the spirit of charity, toleration, and earnest devotion to practical truth and human good. The time for wonder and barren speculation has passed; the hour for action is at hand.

"It is not the intention of the callers of this Convention that any should be admitted who are known to be strangers to the commonwealth of truth and progress; it is therefore necessary for you and all expecting to be present to report the same to me (or any of the friends whom you know), at least one week before the time.

"The annexed subjects have been suggested as being appropriate for consideration and discussion, by conditional and unconditional speakers. Our platform, however, being broad and free, nothing can be determined upon until the assembling of the Convention, when each will have the utmost freedom of speech on every subject brought forward, each speaker alone being responsible for his remarks, and not the Convention.

The History of the Convention.

The Chairman in his succeeding remarks gave a history of the causes which led to the present Convention. A few friends at Darlington had been looking into Spiritualism and kindred subjects for some time. They felt a want of more knowledge and association with other minds similarly engaged, but their acquaintance amongst progressive reformers was exceedingly limited. A circular was issued suggesting a social gathering of friends, which, falling into the hands of a few active souls, got widely circulated, and excited considerable interest. The Darlington friends found that there were many page 7 throughout the country, in the church and higher walks of life, in the professions and in business, whose minds entertained similar ideas, but who wanted some precedent to call them out. The present meeting was therefore called as an experiment and starting-point for other meetings of the same kind throughout the land. Considering the numerous responses he had received from professional and business men, some from great distances and who could not be present, he thought the attendance at the Convention was an element of success, and beyond the most sanguine expectations of its promoters. He felt that the principles taught and entertained by Spiritualists were naturally true, and recommended themselves to the intuitions and reason of every developed mind, but freedom of thought and expression were restrained by the sectarian spirit of persecution which existed in British society. He thought the present meeting would have a moral influence on their brethren in other places, who might be induced to follow in their steps, till the spirit of opposition was destroyed, and every man was free to act and express his appreciation of truth as in America. Mr Hodge then called on Mr Spear to deliver the inaugural address, which had been suggested and prepared under spiritual impression.

The First Spiritual Convention.

Mr Spear, on rising, begged to preface his address by a few remarks of a historical nature. He had the pleasure of stating that he suggested the first Spiritual Convention held in America or in the world, and his pleasure was increased by being present at the first held in this country. The speaker gave an interesting account of the first public teachings of Spiritualists in America. A minister was asked to preach a sermon in favour of it, which he did from the text, "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy," which was listened to by an interested audience. Then the first Convention was held in Boston, Mass. The hall was filled with strangers, but they did not know how to begin, so undisciplined and devoid of purpose were they at that early stage. The eccentric antics of a medium amused some and astonished others, and thus the work began. A paper was started, and other meetings were held, at one of which the speaker had his first experiences of spirit influence. The cause had been spreading and gathering strength ever since. A most successful national Convention had just been held, at which the most advanced political and humanitarian views were advocated. The movement in America now included the wisest heads in the land, those who by pen and tongue were labouring most earnestly and successfully for the promotion of human happiness. When he came to this country he asked if any conventions were held, but no page 8 one understood what he meant, as such gatherings were unknown. He wanted to get up one in London, but could not. He was glad when he heard of the present one. He wished it had been more in the centre, near London; but he believed that every good movement originated in the North, and he hoped they would send the result of their experience out into other parts of the kingdom. Mr Spear then proceeded to deliver

The Inaugural Address.

Assembled to consider subjects deemed important, we improve this opportunity to state our faith, purposes, and expectations. We denominate ourselves Spiritualists and the Friends of Progress.

We regard Spiritualism as a power that will lead us into fields which, if not wholly new, will quicken us to divine and useful lives, Ours is not merely a receptive state; we have learned both to wait and to labour. Each state has its place, each labour its time. The quiet shepherds received the glad tidings that the Christ was born, and they journeyed to the lowly manger to verify the message. Driven by the iron hand of persecution from Thessalonica, the apostles reached Berea, and it is recorded that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians, because they "received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures to see if the things were so." We would imitate these noble souls, and

"Seek for truth where'er it may he found,

On Christian or on heathen ground."

If the Heathen, Hebrew, or Christian scriptures have within them important forms of thought, or seeds of unelaborated truth, we accept them with joy. It is our faith that a communication is opened with the spiritual worlds. Clear demonstrations have been afforded us that our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, as well as Moses and Elias, live, and that they can and do commune with us. Their messages we much, value, affording us, as they do, satisfactory evidence of a future, immortal, and progressive life. Some of us have had serious doubts of an existence beyond the grave, and not a few have had fearful apprehensions that if they did live, they might be for ever tormented in flames unextinguishable. From those gloomy doubts and horrid fears we have been emancipated, and we now hold that God is our Father, man our brother, immortality our destiny. Besides, our hearts have been made glad by numerous assurances that the wonders recorded in the Jewish and Christian scriptures are not mere myths, but are narratives of sober, solid facts. And we now religiously believe that the sick men were healed, the blind made to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, that prisons page 9 were opened and captives were liberated, that Joseph was warned in a dream to flee into Egypt with the young child and its mother, that Cornelius and Peter by spirit ministrations were brought together, and that through them light was given to the Gentiles, which before had shone only upon the Jews. We therefore commend the modern manifestations to all the world as being exceedingly useful in confirming us in the faith of many of the ancient revelations. Moreover, we have much reason to expect that many, and perhaps all the sacred gifts known to the ancient prophets, apostles, and early Christians, may be bestowed upon us; that we may also cast out devils, heal the sick, help the lame to walk, and, if we do not literally, yet spiritually, we hope to raise the dead. Spiritualists are the friends of perpetual progress, of impartial freedom, eternal justice, and universal peace; basing rights on capacity rather than on wealth, sex, clime, age, or complexion; seeking to abolish all vindictive punishments, substituting therefor reformatory institutions, they would teach the world that

"God loves the erring as a shepherd loves
The wandering sheep. No mother hates her child,
But, crusted o'er with evil, sin-defiled,
Cradles him in her bosom. All the world
May curse him, but it matters not to her,
She loves him better for his agonies.
God owns no power mightier than Himself,
God owns no power equal to Himself,
He never formed a soul He could not save."

Spiritualism has been much promoted by woman. Its best mediums have been of the finer, more sensitive, intuitional, and receptive sex. It will be the aim of intelligent Spiritualists to secure to her, in all the departments of life, the rights which she feels she can in love and wisdom use. On committees and councils she will hold important positions. "If we would know the political as well as the moral condition of a people," says De Tocqueville, "we must know the place which woman occupies. Where virtue reigns her influence is felt at every stage of man's existence. It awakens his earliest and tenderest emotions, and leaves upon his mind impressions which a long life cannot destroy." When Pythagoras passed into Italy to preach the supremacy of reason and the necessity of exercising control over the passions to secure true happiness, he selected woman as his fellow-worker in his glorious mission. His wife, his daughters, and fifteen noble females, accompanied him to Crotona, where he opened his schools. The success which attended his teaching and that of his noble coadjutors, in reforming the morals and the lives of the inhabitants of the principal towns of Greece, Sicily, and Italy, was looked upon as little less than miraculous. In page 10 ancient Rome woman held the highest position. The importance attached to the responses of the sybils, the sacredness with which the priestesses of Vesta were invested, and which placed them above the law, mark the importance attached to female organisation by that distinguished people. Nor was modern Rome less remarkable for the influences from time to time exercised by the female mind.

Lady Morgan has said, that while Constantine founded the empire of a church, in which he did not believe, upon the ruins of a religion to which he was superstitiously devoted, his mother Helena, with true feminine earnestness of purpose and intensity of affection, made use of her influence, her power, and her wealth, to give permanence to the teaching of Christianity, by founding temples exceeding in splendour, if not in beauty, those of Pagan worship, crowning all by the erection of the first church in the new capital of the world, dedicated to Divine Wisdom, clothed in a female form, and placed under the guardianship of Saint Sophia.

When Columbus had lost all hopes of obtaining further means to discover the New World, Isabella gave him her jewels. Joan of are saved France; and when all the men forsook the Son of God and fled, the devout women who had anointed and bathed his feet with their tears and wiped them with the hairs of their head, remained by his side, followed him to the Cross, and were earliest at the sepulchre.

That the human mind, heart, and conscience may with the greatest ease receive the highest moral, religious, social, and spiritual thoughts, education should be thorough, equal, and universal. To-day, in this great kingdom, there are millions who have never heard of Spiritualism, much less do they comprehend what is meant by rational liberty, useful conservatism, or intelligent progress. One of the first things that an enlightened Spiritualism will undertake, will be to open the best avenues to knowledge for the people. It will then have educated minds that it can address with hope of success. Millions in America are Spiritualists who would not have heard its glad notes had not the free common schools been opened to all the people. It is the lever by which the masses can and will be lifted up, in the Old as in the New World. A somewhat new class of persons are now in course of education called mediums. Some are healers of the sick, others are seers, not a few are teachers, and some are commissioned to travel from place to place and from nation to nation. Intelligent Spiritualists seek to aid this class of persons. They require tender care, education, food, garments, shelter. Whoever would build a home, or establish a school for the education and development of useful mediumistic persons, would deserve the gratitude of his kind, and would much assist in the promotion of our page 11 blessed work. The circulation of books, periodicals, tracts, the holding of circles, and the calling of meetings and conventions, all aid in the right direction. It is hoped that the phenomenalism of Spiritualism will yet take its place among the recognised facts of science with electricity and magnetism, and that it will be seen that man is a spiritual, as he is also a material being.

It is to be home in mind that this is a convention of Spiritualists and Progressionists. We study the past with profit, contemplate the future with hope. Our hearts having been much comforted and made glad by the modem revelations. We would do what we can to assist and educate others. We therefore have called this Convention, and invited such as would to come and hear, inquire and reason with us; and to the absent we send this our testimony. We desire to say with Alexander Pope—

"If I am right, Thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, O teach my heart
To find the better way."

While we are mindful of the new light which has come to us from above, we wish not to overlook the things which pertain to this present life. Our Convention is open to all who are seekers for truth, and in these investigations each is privileged to use such instrumentalities as are at his or her command; and we trust it may be felt to have been good that we have met together, formed acquaintances, and interchanged opinions and feelings. It would be desirable that some efforts be made to form a simple, easy working organisation, that annually, or oftener, the Spiritualists and Progressionists of Great Britain might assemble, as does the British Social Science Association, to consider the various questions in which they might be specially interested. We noticed with sorrow last year that the justly honoured president of that useful body (Lord Brougham) took occasion to speak with some feeling against Spiritualism. We trust the time will come when we shall have a fair and candid hearing in that and similar bodies. In the future, when more advanced in wisdom and knowledge than now, the Spiritualists of this and other nations may form powerful organisations, after the pattern of the societary heavens, which shall develop and foster an equitable and beneficent commerce, build a broad, rational, and progressive church, establish schools and colleges, and construct a divine and, ever-unfolding government, the laws of which shall be in harmony with pure love, its "officers peace, its walls salvation, and its gates praise." At this moment our thoughts are not generally welcomed by the Church. We trust she will yet see, that her everlasting salvation rests upon the revealed fact of the reappearing. page 12 of the Head of the Church, and on it is based the hope that as he lives, so shall his followers live also. And we trust the intelligent and earnest secularist will see, that without the essential elements of our faith and hope, he cannot move the world to noble deeds, or inspire to a useful life.

In conclusion it may be added, that as means are at its disposal, the association will find great pleasure in sending out missionaries, in developing and sustaining useful mediums, issuing publications, calling conventions, building halls and chapels, and engaging in such other labour as may aid in the reformation of the vicious, to the enlightening of the benighted, to the comfort of the sorrowing, tending to the complete redemption of the human race, preparing the way for Him who said, "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in page 13 God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also."

Mr Spear having concluded speaking, the Convention went into a consideration of the principles embodied in the foregoing address and declaration. At a subsequent session it was discussed whether the Convention should adopt a series of resolutions, or "declaration of opinions and purposes," the same or similar to those read by Mr Spear, when it was recommended that they should be printed in the Report, in connection with his address, as a guide to inquirers, emanating from Mr Spear as an individual spiritualist; but that it would not be expedient to publish any such declaration purporting to come from the Convention, as a basis of belief adopted by all. In such a form it might be regarded as a fixed or settled creed, and trammel some minds with obligations to it, thereby retarding freedom of thought and individual search for truth.

The Convention then adjourned till the afternoon, when it was arranged that Dr M'Leod would open the proceedings by reading a paper.

Second Session.

The Convention again assembled at 2 o'clock p.m., "Wednesday, July 26—Mr Hodge in the chair, who at once called upon Dr M'Leod to deliver his prepared address.

Dr M'Leod rose and said—Mr Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to make one of this company, and thankful to Almighty God, that he has been pleased to open my eyes to the great truths which Spiritualism teaches, and that I am called upon to bear my testimony to their cheering and redeeming influences this day.

From the time when my father and mother first taught me to say" my prayers, and I listened in rapture and fear to the ghost stories that were poured into my youthful ear, I have been an ardent student in the literature of the divine mysteries—anxious, wistful, trustful, doubtful, scorning betimes in regard to the stories that were told me, and the books I had read, from "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp" to those more pretentious and gigantic tomes that fill the shelves of our British Museum. I have no desire to impose upon your patience my personal history in any detail; on the contrary, I only desire to do something practical for the diffusion of Spiritualism as it is understood by us here present, and as, I hope, it page 14 will soon be understood by all men, peoples, nations, kindreds, and tongues.

First, then, men ask us what we mean by spirits and Spiritualism—at least; whenever I broach the subject at home, I am requested to say what I mean—what I am—what my faith, belief, opinions, and principles. Am I orthodox or heterodox? Is the "Church in danger" from my belief? and so forth. As the minutes of this Convention will be given to the public, I wish to give every one who shall read them "a reason for the faith that is in me." And as other members of this Convention will express themselves more or less to the same end, the public will have a good line to go by in forming a judgment upon us and our novel and interesting movement. If it is desirable to get at the details of the process whereby we have become Spiritualists, we beg to refer inquirers to the published literature of Spiritualism. Let them honestly investigate its phenomena, in the presence of an acknowledged medium of character, and the work is done at once. Let them go, as I did, to a Foster or the Marshalls. Let them do as I did. Go to, for example, Mrs Marshall, incog.; tell no one your errand; and when, at your entrance, a piece of furniture, without the aid of a human hand, rises to meet you and greets you by name, as it did me, then laugh at such manifestations if you can. In Mrs Marshall's presence I conversed for hours with my father, mother, and other relatives, and matters were told me that I knew not of previously, so that there could not have been "cerebral sympathy" or "brain-reading" in my case. It was told mo then that I would, at no very distant date, become a great medium and spiritual teacher; and I have already had indications of a fulfilment of this assurance. The chamber in which I sleep has been illuminated by a peculiar kind of light; a bell was rung close to my head in the dead of the night, and loud enough to have been heard in the adjoining house, no material bell being near at the time; knockings are common all over the house; spirits are seen by my wife, in form and shape as palpable as anything in the flesh. "When all is still and a-bed, blows, as if by a sledge hammer, fall upon the wall or floor. Mediums have told me that I am constantly surrounded by spirits, who aver that they are my guides and protectors.

And what to mo has been the consequence of all this? Why, I now have what I may say I had never before, viz., a full and certain faith in God Almighty, the Author and Giver of life, the Origin and Source, the Pater and Mater of all things, visible and invisible, conceivable and inconceivable. I worship him in my soul and body which are his; and the love I bear to him I can no more express, than I can describe his attributes or dimensions. I also believe in page 15 Jesus Christ (remember, I am not speaking for other* Spiritualists, I am but declaring myself) the Great Teacher, that he died in defence of God's truth; and in this sense only can I understand that he shed his blood for me and all men. I have established him, in my affections, as the greatest of all mankind; and I look upon him as, par excellence, the Great Medium between God and man, and entitled, next to God, to my highest love and admiration. I believe in eternal motion, continual change, human progress in truth, love, faith, happiness, and glory; and in the life everlasting. I believe in and desire my life always to be characterised by charity, in its widest sense, temperance, chastity, benevolence, mercy, and honesty of purpose. My motto shall ever be—Progress in every good thing, progress in all but sin, which is death; and I know that all men, of only moderate intelligence, are constantly impressed with the right, though they may be tempted to do wrong. Thus, then, I give my sole allegiance to God my Maker, praying him and Jesus and all good spirits to deliver and keep me from all evil. And as a Spiritualist, I here proclaim my firm belief in spirits. I not only believe that the spirits of the so-called dead do hold communication with the so-called living, but I believe that we are constantly surrounded by them, in various degrees of progression, who witness and can influence our conduct, according to our disposition; and that we should be constantly on our guard against the evil communications of spirits, as of men. In contradistinction to this belief, which is not to halt here remember, I may also tell you that I do not believe in the so-called Christian Churches as at present constituted, nor in the doctrines, for the most part, which they teach; and though it may appear unkind to express myself in such a manner, I protest that it is most unaccountable to me how an educated mind can be reconciled to the monstrosities which these Churches preach and teach. I do not believe (because I cannot understand how) that Jesus Christ is God, or that his blood was shed to appease the anger of a god, or as a sacrifice for sin, as preached. I do not believe in a personal or any other kind of devil, who, we are told, "goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Neither do I believe in a "bottomless pit filled with fire and brimstone," more commonly called "hell," where the souls of the erring are sent to weep and wail and gnash their teeth for ever and ever. Nor do I believe that the good Jesus ever preached or taught such horrible doctrine. And as I do not believe in this Bible hell, neither do I believe in a Bible heaven, with a golden floor and gates of crystal, where the blessed are inconvenienced with the sole occupation of song-singing, sans intermission, to all eternity. Finally, my friends, ^* page 16 I do not believe in the "King of Terrors," called Death. I believe that when my heart and flesh shall fail, and my mortality shall be laid in the tomb, that I shall only "die"—

"As sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darken'd west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky,
But melts away into the light of heaven!"

Well, knowing and being quite certain about these good things, this religion of life eternal, I am anxious in my heart that the whole world should not only share in my belief, but in the blessings which it brings, and to that end I am here to-day to take a part in this great work. Our opponents, or rather the opponents of Spiritualism, treat our mediums as conjurors, and proclaim to the world that we are students of a "black art." Can that art be black, which cheers the human soul with incontestable manifestations and proofs of its immortality? Can that profession be black, which teaches me that my happiness and progression in the summer-land hereafter, depends entirely upon my usefulness, truthfulness, and purity here?—that in proportion as I am less sensual, less envious, less gluttonous, less earthly here, I shall be more spiritual, more lovely and loving, more divine and heavenly there? Is it to be called a black business which aims at the formation of a great spiritual association of practical philanthropists? Let our opponents answer, for such are the motives for our assembling here to-day. Let the world know unmistakably what Spiritualism teaches. It teaches that man should fear none but God—and perfect love casteth out fear—that we should, bravely and sincerely, bear our testimony to the glorious truths that have been revealed to us, even at the risk of our personal safety. Fear not them who can kill the body, but flee from what would soil or endanger the happiness of your soul's future; and let our constant prayer to God Almighty be that he, in his great goodness, may be pleased to guide our immortal spirits in the way of all truth. Amen.

Finally, brethren, I would entreat you all to go to work with a will, and to have great hope for the future. Remember it is but some four or five years ago, only, that Spiritualism began to receive a share of the public attention. Now we have a monthly magazine, which, however, to my astonishment, has no representative here to-day; and a weekly paper called the Spiritual Times, in the same situation, I am sorry to say. Five or six years ago the press of England treated Spiritualism with silent contemptuousness; now, they have condescended, for the most part, to censure us, but also to discuss our principles, and this is a great gain. We can now rank, on our side the names of such men as Professor De Morgan, William Howitt, and a phalanx of talent beside; and who can tell page 17 the great progress we shall have made when we assemble our second Convention in 1860? Remember, "Truth is mighty and will prevail," and Spiritualism is but the persistence of God's providence in immemorial ways, and the greatest step yet taken in the education and salvation of the human race.

Mr Gardner spoke in appreciation of Dr M'Leod's address, and remarked on some of the doctor's wonderful experiences as a medium.

Dr M'Leod favoured the Convention with a few examples of spirit intercourse of a very remarkable and incontestable nature, proving to a demonstration that they came from loving and intelligent beings, the spirits of the individuals whom they represented themselves to be; if the limits of this report admitted of it, nothing could be more interesting than these experiences.

Discussion—Mesmerism V. Spiritualism.

Mr Morgan interposed an objection to the conclusions of Spiritualists respecting the source of their manifestations. He thought that Mesmerism and Spiritualism were two distinct things, and that the phenomena ought to be classified, not confounded. He could thus account for Mr Foster's phenomena on clairvoyant and mesmeric principles. He described the mode of writing on the pellets of paper, and said it indeed seemed marvellous how they could be read by the medium; but he could narrate a similar instance quoted from Dr Ashburner in the "Zoist," vol. 6, showing that Major Buckley in his experiments, could make clairvoyants, while wide awake, read the mottoes in nuts by merely passing his hands over the objects. Forty-two clairvoyants could by this means read the mottoes simultaneously. This, he thought, was more wonderful than Mr Foster's experiments, which he concluded were mesmeric and not spiritualistic. Mr Morgan continued by giving some cases from his own experience. On one occasion he was ill, and asked a boy whom he was in the habit of mesmerising, to describe his physical condition. The clairvoyant proceeded, and gave a perfectly accurate anatomical description of the internal viscera, though he was entirely ignorant of the structure of the body—pointed out a black congested mark as from a bruise, and said there were two others in the brain, over causality—gave the causes of them as proceeding from reading and "making things." Mr Morgan thought this a blunder, as he had been engaged in no mechanical operations. The boy said it was "what lights the streets," meaning gas, and Mr Morgan at once recollected, that he had been giving much attention to some chemical experiments. The boy then described the whole of the apparatus used, and the room in which it was done, and when taken into it afterwards at once recognised it. The boy said he saw all the circumstances described, pho- page 18 tographed as it were, on Mr Morgan's brain. Mr Morgan, therefore, contended that Mr Foster might do likewise, and that it was clairvoyance and not spiritualism.

Dr M'Leod said that the experience of spiritualists went further than that. When he visited Mrs Marshall's, he got information on subjects of which he was not at the time cognisant, so that neither the spirits nor the medium could obtain the information from reading his brain.

Mr Bums contended that mesmeric phenomena and spiritual phenomena were identical, only that mesmerism was performed by spirits in the flesh, while the spiritual manifestations were performed by disembodied spirits. In both cases they were psychological, and in accordance with the same psychological laws, therefore, though similar manifestations were produced by what are called mesmerism and spiritualism, yet it was no proof that mesmerism was a fact and spiritualism a myth, but rather that spiritualism was the great fact of which mesmerism was a branch. Man was now a spiritual being or he never could be one, and from his spiritual nature all forces and phenomena proceeded. Mere facts and instances could never settle the question: the investigation required to be based on a knowledge of principles. It was a well-known fact that disembodied spirits could control subjects and produce all the phenomena of the mesmerist. Though we were spirits now, yet our condition of consciousness was a physical one—hence we were not cognisant of our spiritual existence; but under mesmeric or spiritual manipulations, the state of spiritual consciousness or clairvoyance could be induced, so that Mr Morgan's objection fell to the ground. Those who were subjects for the manipulation of spirits were called mediums. Mr Bums then described the operations of writing and drawing mediums as they had been presented to his experience; how pictures of six or seven colours had been executed with crayons or paints by mediums who knew nothing of art; how valuable information in philosophy and morals had been given; also advice in regard to health and medical prescriptions. He narrated the case of a lady who was rendered sleepless for several days and nights with a violent attack of pleuralgia. She was nearly worn out with pain when she thought of her spirit friends. In less than an hour her sister, who is a writing medium, and had not been acquainted with the action of her mind towards the spirits, went up stairs with the following prescription, written automatically, by the spirits controlling the action of her arm:—"Lie on your back, and inflate your lungs forty times, even though it cause you much pain, then move into a darkened room and sit fifteen minutes." The lady did so, and while in the darkened room felt the influence, as it were, of mesmeric passes over page 19 the affected part, which removed nearly all trace of pain, and next day she was quite restored. Mr Burns gave other instances of medical care and guardianship which clearly demonstrated the certainty, beneficence, and utility of spirit intercourse. He also gave a case of the spirits throwing a young woman, a medium, into the trance state, similar to what a mesmeric operator would, and against which she for a certain time resisted. In this state she not only went through the ordinary phenomena of clairvoyance, describing persons and places she had never seen, but talked with spirits, beheld spiritual states and societies, and got promise of many instances of spirit intercourse which have since come to pass. On another occasion she traced a robbery by the same means. These mediums are often conscious of the influence of the spirits. It falls on the head at the top, over the phrenological organ of Spirituality, and proceeds down the muscles of the arm, giving a volition not of their own, and causing them to write, draw, and do other unpremeditated acts. Mere mesmeric experience could never settle the question. Medium-ship, and the intercourse of living beings with spirits, was a privilege and function of the human soul, and to understand it required a deep knowledge of anthropology and investigation of the spiritual nature of man. It would yet be seen that spiritualism would explain mesmerism, instead of mesmerism explaining spiritualism. Mr Morgan had quoted Dr Ashburner, but the doctor was now a spiritualist as well as Dr Elliotson; and both now declare that their acquaintance with spiritualism has thrown a flood of light on their former investigations, and entirely reversed their convictions in many respects. It ought to be remembered, also, that the late accomplished and lamented Professor Gregory of Edinburgh was an intelligent spiritualist. Mr Burns also referred to the writings of Professor Brittan of New York, one of the most experienced psychologists, and to Dr Dods, an experimental and healing mesmerist, who, after many years of resistance to the truth, at last acknowledged that he was in great part a medium for the operations of beneficent spirits.

Mr Spear's Experience.

Mr Spear gave his experience, as evidence in favour of the hypothesis, that the phenomena under consideration was the work of spirits. He gave an historical description of the phenomena in America, from the first rude knockings to the table-tipping, rapping, impersonating, writing, impressional, and other forms of mediumship up to the present time. He could not account for his own experience on any other hypothesis than that of the Spiritualists. At an early stage of the manifestations in his native country, he was asked at a séance if he had a sister in the spirit world. He replied he had page 20 not. He was then informed that a spirit purported to be present who assumed to be his sister, and gave the name of Frances. It proved to be his sister-in-law, who had a few months before passed into the spirit world. Mr Spear said he was perplexed to know how that name could be given. He had not thought of her while at the table, and no one of the company present knew her. Sometime after that Mr Spear was alone, with no medium near him. He was made to write with his own hand, that he must go on a certain day to the town of Abington, situated twenty miles from where he wrote, and see one David "Vining. He did not know of the existence of a personage of that name in that town. He showed the strange message to some of his friends, and was counselled by them to make the journey. He did so, and found Mr Vining very sick: he had been in much agony for ten days and nights, during which time he had not slept. Mr Spear was moved to point his hand toward him, yet did not touch him; and the poor man was so relieved that he soon fell into a sweet sleep, and when he awoke said he had experienced a delightful dream, in which an angel had visited him. By this and similar strange and unexpected experiences, Mr Spear said he saw with much clearness two things: first, Intelligence, that could make him write the name and assist him to find a person of whom he knew nothing; second, Beneficence—he had been sent upon a mission of mercy. These were to him evidences of great weight, whatever others might think of them. Subsequently he had in like manner been sent to a woman who had been struck with lightning, and his presence immediately relieved her. At a further stage he had been in the habit of describing cases of disease, many of them of the most critical and intricate description; and though he was no doctor, yet physicians had repeatedly testified to the scientific accuracy of the descriptions. It was his conviction that it was now rendered quite clear and certain, that a communication of a useful nature is open with the spirit world. He thought there was the highest good to be obtained from these communings. The sick were healed, definite ideas of immortality and the state of the departed were given, and the certainty of a never-ending existence of progression was established, all of which were good uses, removing and ameliorating physical and moral evils, the greatest that afflict mankind. Under the guidance of this mysterious power he had travelled nearly two hundred thousand miles. He came to this country by spirit direction, knowing no one, and without a single letter of introduction. Since his arrival he had done in faith what the spirit world desired. He had made many journeys over England, had been in Paris three times in eighteen months, had opened up a valuable correspondence with Spiritualists and others in England, page 21 Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, and Mexico, as well as in various sections of the United States. Such men as Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, had said this power was all in Mr Spear. To such he replied, then there was more in him than he knew of.

At the present time the power was given him to read the character, describe and prescribe for diseases, or give the physical peculiarities of persons, by a lock of their hair, or by their letters. To do so he held them in his left or receptive hand, sometimes placed them on his tongue, and lastly pressed them to his forehead; and it was usually allowed that the things he was influenced to write or to speak were wonderfully accurate.^* This power Mr Spear attributed to spirits, who were often seen by clairvoyants to be about him when doing these wonders. Mr Spear also stated that he had been assisted to give important dissertations on electricity, magnetism, geology, and kindred themes, of which he knew nothing. He had been sent to a college in New York to give a course of twelve lectures on geology, of which he had no previous knowledge. These were attended by a professor of that science, who, though not a spiritualist, spoke of them in commendatory terms, asserting that while they did not contradict what he was accustomed to teach, they opened up finer and more critical points, some of which he should teach his classes, without stating how he had learned them.^† Others might explain these experiences differently, but to him (Mr Spear) they were spiritual facts, and as such he presented them for the consideration of the Convention.

Mr Morgan insisted on the classification of phenomena, and thought it was not well to ascribe these things to supernatural influences if they could be attributed to natural causes.

Mr Burns explained that all causes were spiritual, and that all conditions were natural. No line could be drawn between the natural and supernatural, which latter term had no existence except page 22 in a certain class of minds. That the spiritual hypothesis was not a fanatical belief to supersede science, but was the very essence of science itself, bringing down to scientific demonstration subjects that had hitherto been considered supernatural and visionary, on account of the ignorance of mankind, but which, by the light Spiritualism had thrown on them, could be satisfactorily and scientifically explained. At a certain stage of human development it was as natural for man to commune with spirits as it was to breathe; and instead of being rebutted as supernatural, it ought to be received gratefully, as extending the field for scientific investigation.

Mrs Spear thought that though it was important to know all that was knowable of material laws, yet there was a spiritual creation, governed by spiritual laws; and although these might be better comprehended, perhaps, through a knowledge of the former, yet they were not a continuation of them, nor could they be found by digging ever so deeply into the mud. She believed we were as much spirits now as we ever should be, though no doubt what was called death would remove many obstacles to the pure manifestation of spirit. Now, the question seemed to be, how much of the power exhibited belonged to the person visible to outer sight, and how much to some invisible person. She had herself been suddenly made strong, physically so, and enabled to carry heavy weights. She knew that this power was not her own by virtue of strong muscle, which growth was always gradual, and believed it to come from invisible persons, yet she could not draw the line where her power stopped and theirs began. She would have persons as careful and wishful to discern spirit power as the so-called forces of nature or material forces.

Mr Richmond, who had formerly lived in a community of spiritualists called "Shakers," in America, read a paper on the "Circles of God," after which the Convention adjourned.