I've included the article about the expelled Wesleyans because there were many small articles referring to the matter over a long period of time, none of which explained the nature of the grievances as this seems to do. Hope it's of interest to some! ......................................................................................................... 26 SEPTEMBER 1851 THE EXPELLED WESLEYANS THE REV SAMUEL DUNN preached in the Independent chapel at Mevagissey, on Monday evening last, and afterwards delivered an address. On Tuesday morning he again preached there, and on Tuesday evening there was a crowded attendance to hear him in the Baptist chapel at St. Austell. His text was the 3rd chapter of Philippians and the 20th verse: "Our conversation is in heaven, from when also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." After the sermon, Mr. Dunn addressed the audience at considerable length, in regard to the proceedings of the conference, and the present state of Wesleyan affairs. Having before given them a statement with reference to the expulsion of himself and others, he should say that during the eighteen months since he last addressed them, he had had numerous opportunities of reviewing the whole matter. Since his expulsion, he had travelled more than forty thousand miles in different parts of the kingdom, often by night, and sometimes alone in railway carriages, when he had very carefully and prayerfully reviewed the whole; and his conclusion was, that were he placed in similar circumstances to-morrow, he should not in the least deviate from the course he took at the time of his expulsion. He did not see how he could have acted differently without abandoning great principles, without being a party to anti-protestant proceedings, without violating the laws of his Saviour, without dishonouring the names of John Wesley, Adam Clarke, and other men of renown who had passed into the skies to receive their eternal reward. The course he had been obliged to take was not at all in accordance with his feelings; and if he could have seen it was the will of God, he had stood prepared, if He had given him a call, to leave the white cliffs of old England, and go as far as the wings of heaven could waft him, to some island in the Pacific, and end his remaining days in preaching to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. But here he was, placed in this peculiar situation by the despotism of the Wesleyan conference. "Woe is me that I sojourn in Masach, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." "O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest." He had tried to bring these matters to an amicable settlement from month to month. He proposed to an eminent minister of the body, some eight or ten weeks ago, before the conference met, that the whole matter should be left to the decision of twelve persons, six from each party, to yield to each other as far as their conscience would allow them. Or if they objected, to meet six from the party with which he was connected. He proposed that they should leave it to twelve ministers of other demoninations; four clergymen, four Independent, and four Baptist ministers, who should hear each side of the question; and if those men - enlightened, clear-headed, impartial ministers of Christ - gave their decision against the course he had taken, he would abide by that decision, and refrain from holding public meetings of the kind now before him. This proposal, however, was rejected and treated with contempt; it was answered, what do ministers of other denominations know about methodism. A humble, gentle, lovely, pious brother, in the knowdge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew second to none in the connexion - DANIEL WALTON, wrote about three months ago an excellent pamphlet entitled "Counsels of Peace." He (Mr. Dunn) read it, and said it was the very thing to effect a reconciliation. But at the conference, instead of being thanked for writing such a pamphlet, he (Walton) was condemned for it; and that lovely-spirited man, who had preached for thirty-six years, because he had dared to propose "counsels of peace," between the conference and the expelled, was degraded, torn from his circuit, and sent as second preacher to a mere fragment of a circuit amongst the lofty hills of Yorkshire, under a young superintendent who traveled his first years under him (Mr. Dunn) in the Shetland Isles some years ago. He then referred to the rejection by the conference of memorials signed by 50,000 members, including 7,000 office-bearers, requesting the conference to reconsider the matter. Some of the female members signed the memorials, and that was deemed a very high offence, that women should dare to meddle in church matters. The whole of the memorials were contemptuously rejected, the conference would not look at one of them. Such a thing, he believed, had never transpired in the popish or any other church, since the time that Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives to his mediatorial throne in heaven. But in order to give a little colouring to such arbitrary conduct, the conference said, if the memorials had been of a certain description, signed by certain individuals, of a certain class, of a certain age, in a certain place, on one of three remarkable days a year, under the sanction of a certain individual (the superintendent), signed in his presence, instantly handed over to him, about matters affecting no other circuits but your own, without touching any Methodist principles, et cetera, then they said, we would have admitted them over the threshold and have looked at them. There were, however, sixty-six petitions of the constitutional kind, and they were obliged to take them in; but how did they treat them? They could not sit, by law, above twenty-one days; they delayed the consideration of these legal petitions to the evening of the last day, and then their answer, substantially, was this, - that twenty-two of them asked for things so very important that the conference could not grant them, and the remainder asked for things so very unimportant that they were not worth granting. He believed that one of the sixty-six was sent from St. Austell, signed by some of the clearest headed men in the society there, and they could tell whether their petition had been answered or not. Having rejected these memorials, the conference had made matters still more stringent, to bind the people more closely. They had adopted the principle of the old court, which had been abolished in the reign of Charles I. GEORGE OSBORNE introduced it at the conference last year, and it was now Methodist law, that the preacher could put any question he thinks proper to any member or office bearer at the bar of a leader's meeting, and demand an answer, on the refusal of which he may pronounce the individual dismemberised, as being guilty of what the conference calls contumacy, and he was then without the right of appeal. Mr. SECCOMBE might, if he pleased, deal thus with any of the Wesleyans present, for attending that meeting. Some of the preachers might not have exercised this power, but it was in the assumption of it that the sin consists. Last year, JAMES GROSE, the superintendent of the Exeter circuit, deposed from office a venerable local preacher named BARBER, who had been a member for sixty years. He was deposed for not paying, because he disapproved of the arbitrary acts of the preachers. Last Tuesday night the new superintendent, JOHN SMITH, came to a class in which he met, and gave him his ticket without a word, though knowing he would not give a penny to the cause under the circumstances; and next night the venerable man went down with him (MR. DUNN) to Teignmouth, stood with him on the platform, and though seventy five years of age, made his maiden speech. Last year the preachers were recklessly slaughtering the fold of Christ by hundreds; but they had found that would not do; it affects their funds and their character through the nation, and there was every reason now to believe that a private order had been sent throughout the connexion, that the preachers were to be very cautious how they expel the members. He contrasted also the treatment of himself with that of his friend THOMAS ROWLAND, who this year had written two tracts very severely condemnatory of the conference, and yet had not been expelled, though they had turned him into a supernumerary and cut off one-half of his income. They had reason to complain of the Wesleyan ministers for assuming the tremendous power, almost unlimited and irresponsible, which they have. He then stated objections to the Wesleyan ministers claiming the sole power of legislation over the vast methodist connexion; to their power of expelling ministers, office-bearers, and members in the manner they did; and their claiming the control of all the chapels, on which there were heavy debts for which they were not responsible. He said no person could get into the Wesleyan ministry without the nomination of a preacher; and another objection was to the preachers having so much to do with money matters, especially to their having the control of the immense funds of the body, and claiming the right to levy taxes on the people as they thought proper without their consent. Further, he complained of the sale of Kingswood school, the scene of Wesley's labours, instead of which a great pile of buildings had been erected at Bath; the old building would not do for the preachers of the present day, and towards the expense of the new erection conference had ordered a collection, which had been made in every Methodist chapel in the land. Further, he said, they objected to the manner in which the various monies of the connexion were appropriated. The yearly collection last year amounted to GBP 10,000, out of which GBP 20.16s.6d. were applied for the expenses of a special district meeting to try JAMES BROMLEY at Bath, and GBP 50.12s.6d. for the expense of supplying his place, so that that unrighteous act of the suspension of a christian minister cost the Wesleyans last year GBP 71.9s. He came now to an important point. He had taken counsel's opinion, putting Wesley's poll-deed and the minutes of conference in his hands, and had always thereupon contended that he had been illegally expelled. But the preachers justified the expulsion of himself and his friends without trial, on the ground that they had only exerted the power transferred to them by Mr. WESLEY. He had shown, however, and he believed it to be the very cause of the evil which has sprung up in methodism in the present day, that the preachers, now that they had constituted methodism into a separate church, had attempted to govern it by the same rules as Wesley governed it by when he considered it a mere community - a mere society of individuals, many of whom belonged to other churches; and hence in the erasure of a member's name from a Methodist class-book, Wesley never regarded it as excommunication from the church of Christ. He had contended that the preachers were mistaking the power which Wesley assumed, and which he exercised. He had stated this some scores of times during the past year. A few weeks ago he was in company with an eminent minister of the body, not yet expelled, and not Dr. BEAUMONT, or DANIEL WALTON, or GEORGE STEWART, but still a very clear-headed man, who asked him if he were aware of the frauds which had been committed, for some years past, with regard to their standard writings, especially the minutes of conference, containing the rules and regulations of their body. He (Mr. Dunn) replied, that he had had some suspicion of it for many years. He then told him to get a copy printed twenty or thirty years ago, and compare it with that given to the preachers who were admitted at the conference this year. He should tell them that the whole of the minutes were spread over ten volumes, but the substence of these is collected into a little volume, which is given to every preacher at his ordination, as containing the form of discipline which he is expected to carry out. He succeeded in getting one of the copies presented this year, and though it had on its title-page "Printed for GEORGE WHITFIELD, and sold at all the preaching-houses - reprinted in 1850," yet he solemnly declared, with great grief of heart, that on comparing it with the copy presented some twenty years ago, there were omissions, additions, interlineations, inversions, and mutilations. In the old copy, the nature of the power Wesley exercised is described in his own words, and is directly in the teeth of the assertions of the preachers in the last few years; would they believe it, that in the authorised copy printed this year, every word of that, contained in two and a half pages, is omitted. These statements would get abroad, and it would be for any preacher to refute them, if he were able. It was also a most affecting fact, that during the past year the preachers had changed the condition of church-membership from a religious into a money one; they had expelled members for no other reason than because they had not been paid as usual. With regard to the alterations in the minutes, he believed it had been done by JABEZ BUNTING and THOMAS JACKSON, whose name was to the minutes this year. The matter had never been brought before the conference, but if it had been done by the authority of the conference, it would have been a most affecting evidence of a bad state of things in that body. Mr. Wesley's caution about building expensive chapels, which would make rich men necessary to the connexion, was one of the things left out of the minutes given to the ordained preachers this year. Mr. Wesley says in this minute: - if it come to pass that ever rich men are necessary in Methodism, farewell to the Methodist discipline, if not doctrine too. They might remember that in March last there was a meeting of some hundreds of the aristocracy of Methodism, the long-pursed men, and they signed a declaration that they would stand by Methodism, and so on. He then referred to other matters left out of the minutes presented to the young preachers, thirty or forty of whom passed the conference this year, - in relation to the five o'clock preaching, the snuff-taking, dram-drinking, &c. He said there was a remarkable alteration from the minutes twenty years ago, with regard to chapel deeds; and there were omissions with respect to the election of trustees, and the appropriation of remaining funds on Methodism breaking up in any place. There were other omissions, but he had left the copies at Mr. LEWARNE's, and could not now refer to them. He was of opinion that these omissions and alterations were not made without an object; and after some further observations he concluded the meeting with singing and prayer. On Wednesday evening last, the Rev. S. DUNN preached to a numerous congregation in the Methodist New Connexion chapel, Truro. After the sermon he delivered an address to some extent of the same purport as that delivered at St. Austell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LETTERS TO THE EDITOR STATISTICS OF CORNWALL - (No. 36) To the EDITOR of the WEST BRITON, SIR, - the next parish is MANACCAN. About a furlong south of Treath are the remains of a circular entrenchment, about four acres. About a half a mile north of Kestle are the remains of a circular fort, about four acres. About a furlong S.E. of Caerply is an ancient rectangular fort, about 200 feet by 140. (Caerpley, the entrenched fold?) At Treworgy are the remains of a circular entrenchment. By the road a little south of Trewan, are the remains of a circular entrenchment, about an acre. A furlong S.E. of Rosmorder are the remains of a circular entrenchment, about five acres; and a little N.W. of Rosmorder on the slope of the hill near the road, an ancient entrenchment extends down towards the valley, in length about 200 fathoms. ST. MARTIN in MENEAGE - At Gear, half a mile north of Trelowarren, is a large circular entrenchment, about 15 acres. At Carvallack, the road passes through an entrenchment of a somewhat elliptical form, cutting off a part of it on the N.E. side, and south-westward, the work extends about 50 fathoms and there meets and is there connected with a circular entrenchment, the interior area of which has a diameter about 230 feet. Both the works are surrounded by a single bank and ditch, and occupy about three acres and a quarter. About three furlongs westward of Tremayne farm house, is a circular entrenchment, about one acre and a quarter. At Dry tree, on Goonhilly Downs, is a barrow, diameter 95 feet, in the middle of which is stuck up the stump of a dead tree, which, as I presume, gives the name to the place. About fifty fathoms north- eastward of which, is another barrow, diameter 85 feet, and north-westward of which about twenty fathoms, is another, diameter 230 feet. Between the two first-mentioned barrows, there is a great granite stone, about 16 feet long, in an inclined position, with one end in the ground. It appears to have been fixed upright, and must have been brought, at least, seven or eight miles from the nearest granite country; it is about 2 1/2 feet wide by 2 feet thick, and probably weighs nearly seven tons. At a quarter of a mile north of Dry tree, are three barrows, diameters 110, 100, and 65 feet; the middle one has a shallow trench round it. At Mawgan Cross is an ancient inscribed stone. Borlase quotes Mr,. Moyle, who wrote in 1715, that, by the characters of the inscription, the stone had been fixed for more than 1,200 years. CONSTANTINE - About half of a mile E.N.E. of Gweek, are two barrows; the northern barrow is high, diameter 60 feet, and the other is low, diameter 40 feet. They are about 25 feet asunder. About a quarter of a mile N.E. of the last-mentioned, are two barrows, one of them is high, diameter 50 feet, the other low, diameter 40 feet, and the distance between them about 40 fathoms. On the road from Gweek towards Brill, at a quarter of a mile S.W. of Carwythenick House, is an entrenchment which appears to have been nearly rectangular in its form, with the corners rounded, the formation of the road appears to have destroyed one of its sides. It probably occupied about three acres; single bank and ditch. (Caerwartha-nick, the fort above the creek?) About a furlong north of Vellanoweth, is a barrow near the road leading from Gweek towards Truro, diameter 55 feet. On Merthen Downs are two barrows, diameters 60 and 40 feet; the smaller one has a trench of nearly a square form surrounding it. About a quarter of a mile east of the house at Merthen, is a rectangular entrenchment about two acres and a quarter. At Higher Calmansack are remains of a circular entrenchment about one acre and a half. A furlong westward of High Cross is a circular entrenchment about three quarters of an acre. About a mile and a half northward of the church, on the top of a hill, is the celebrated Mayne Rock or Tolmen, a huge block of granite in shape somewhat like a bowl, having a flat top nearly horizontal, which is irregularly hollowed into cavities of various sizes, apparently by the influence of the weather, in common with many other granite masses which are similarly situated. Its lower part rests on two other rocks, the whole forming the most elevated part of a ridge of granite. Its length is about 33 feet, and its width from 19 to 16 1/4 feet, and its greatest depth about 14 feet, which is at the middle, it being only 6 1/2 feet average thickness at the southern end, and 11 feet at the northern end. Its cubic content is about 6,000 feet, and its weight probably about 500 tons. (Dr. Borlase and his copiers appear to have greatly exaggerated its weight.) This immense mass curiously rests on two small bases, the largest of which is about 15 inches diameter, and the smaller about five inches. A quarter of a mile westward of Carloggas, on the eastern side of the road leading from Gweek towards Truro, are traces of a circular entrenchment, about 1 3/4 acres. Caer-loggas, according to Pryce, is "Mouse Castle." At about a quarter of a mile N.W., of the house at Trevease, and about one hundred fathoms east of the road leading from Gweek to Truro, are four ancient pits in a row, nearly north and south, at about 60 fathoms from each other, diameter of each about 40 feet, and about 5 feet deep. The bottom of one of them was dug into to about 6 feet deeper, where was found a blackish unctuous matter, and the pit continued deeper in a circular form, but the search was not continued. About 60 fathoms east of the northernmost of these pits is another pit like them, and about 70 fathoms E.N.E. of the southernmost pit are the remains of a circle of upright stones, diameter 80 feet. About 100 fathoms N.E. of the northernmost pits is a barrow formed of stones, diameter 50 feet; great part of which has been carried away to repair the fences of the fields. A circular inclosure of large stones surrounded the interior of the base, and within this was found a grave lying north and south, many pieces of bone and a bracelet were found in it. Tradition of the neighbourhood says that a battle was fought here between the ancient Cornish and the Danes; which appears in some measure to be corroborated by the number of barrows hereabout; eight of them having been described in the parish of Wendron, at a quarter of a mile S.E. of Viscar, and at a little N.E. of half-way house, and two others in this parish to be described, all of which are on the same elevated plain and within three quarters of a mile of a common centre. About three furlongs east of Ponstreath is a barrow, diameter 80 feet; about a quarter of a mile northward of the house at Lestraines, on the top of the hill is a barrow. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, RICHARD THOMAS Falmouth, September 16, 1851