which is found in the State of Missouri, gives its name to a conference. The ST. LOUIS CONFERENCE contains six districts; namely, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Potosi, Springfield, Lexington, Boonville: fifty-one stations, circuits, and missions; fifty-nine ministers, with one hundred and sixty-three local preachers; and thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-five church-members, eight hundred and ninety-five of whom are people of colour.

As this city and locality constitute an interesting portion of the Union, and is much visited and remarked upon by our countrymen, it may be proper to notice, that it was founded in 1764, by the French, as the name indicates, when they were in possession of New-Orleans, and commanded the waters of the Mississippi from the south. Methodism was introduced so recently as 1821.

Twenty-seven years ago, it seems, the Methodist Church had no existence in St. Louis; we have now a conference, numbering 13,755 members in the city and neighbouring country. About the time in question, namely, in 1820, the city itself numbered 4,598 inhabitants; in 1845, they amounted to 34,140. It appears from this, that population and Methodism have been concurrently progressing, and probably in pretty equal proportions.

V. The State of ARKANSAS, on the right bank of the Mississippi, gives its name to a coNFERENCE belonging to the Methodist Church, South. This conference contains five districts; namely, Little Rock, Fayetteville, Washington, Pine Bluff, and Helena: forty-one stations, circuits, and missions; forty-three ministers, with one hundred and forty-eight local preachers; and nine thousand seven hundred and thirty-six church-members, seventeen hundred and fifty of whom are people of colour.

Agent for the Washington Seminary, Lewis S. Marshall. This is new ground, Arkansas having been separated from the State of Missouri only in 1819, and erected into

a territorial government. In 1836, it was admitted into the Union as an independent State. Its white population is stated to be 14,273 in 1820; and in 1845, to have increased to 145,000. Its slave population in 1820, consisted of 1,617; and in 1840, it had increased to 19,935.

It will be seen, that the Methodist Church has rapidly advanced in this new country. Its work, as is evident from the Minutes, is chiefly missionary. Time has not allowed of much consolidation, or of the introduction of seminaries of learning. Institutions of this description must follow evangelization, and no doubt they will appear in due time.

VI. Memphis, standing on the left bank of the Mississippi, and in the lowest point of the State of Tennessee, gives its name to a conference. The MEMPHIS CONFERENCE contains six districts; namely, Memphis, Granada, Salem, Somerville, Jackson, Paducah: seventy-one stations, circuits, and missions; one hundred and one ministers, with three hundred and forty-four local preachers; and thirty thousand nine hundred and forty church-members, six thousand and sixty-eight of whom are people of colour.

Jackson Female Institute, L. Lea, President; A. W. Jones, Professor; G. T. Baskerville, Agent for the Jackson Female Institute and Centenary Fund.

This ecclesiastical division, in great part, lies in the upper or northern portion of the State of Mississippi, though its head is in Tennessee. Slavery, it will be seen, abounds here; and it is gratifying to find upwards of six thousand slaves belonging to the Church.

VII. The Mississippi State, the south-east point of which touches the Gulf of Mexico, is occupied by another division bearing the above name. This MISSISSIPPI CONFERENCE Contains seven districts; namely, Clinton,

Natchez, Vicksburg, Yazoo, Lake Washington Mission, Sharon, Pearl River: fifty-four stations, circuits, and missions; seventy-three ministers, with one hundred and ninety-three local preachers; and sixteen thousand five hundred and ninety-eight church-members, six thousand one hundred and eighty-three being people of colour.

Centenary College, John C. Miller; Joseph M'Dowell, Agent for Old Centenary College.

VIII. The LOUISIANA CONFERENCE now demands our attention. We have six districts in this division; namely, New-Orleans, Baton Rouge, Opelousas, Monroe, Shreveport, Vidalia fifty-three stations, circuits, and missions; forty-seven ministers, with seventy-one local preachers; and eight thousand two hundred and seventy-two church-members, three thousand seven hundred and forty-nine of whom are people of colour.

D. O. Shattuck, President of Centenary College; Robert R. Read, Agent for the Centenary College.

The above college is located at Jackson.

This conference is important, because it includes NewOrleans, the great commercial mart of the Mississippi, and famed as the most profligate and wicked place in the Union. On examination, it will be found that the societies in this city are very small, which seems to corroborate the common report as to the dissipation of the place. Its inhabitants are, it is said, constantly changing, and consist very much of desperate adventurers; and it should seem, that the sickliness of the place causes the people to push the pursuit of gayety and pleasure to the utmost extreme; as if the uncertainty of life led them to seek as much of what they consider enjoyment in a short space as possible. This is no unusual thing. The inhabitants of Vera Cruz are similarly distinguished; and yet it is about the most pestilential locality in the world.

Races of men, it should seem, have something to do with

both religion and solid freedom. Wherever, on the continent of America, we find the basis of population to be French, as in New-Orleans;-or Spanish, as in Florida;— we perceive in this circumstance an effectual barrier against the progress of the gospel, as well as an incapacity for selfgovernment and liberty, as demonstrated by their departed power. Romanism may, indeed, perform its part in all this. Its policy has everywhere been to attach man to a system, instead of educating him to walk and act for himself. But systems break down; and when this takes place, and the people are found helpless vassals, they are sure to be incapable of acting for themselves, and necessarily fall under the dominion of stronger races.

IX. ALABAMA is not exactly on our line. It lies betwixt the State of Mississippi on the one hand, and Georgia on the other; having Florida, for a considerable extent, as its frontier towards the south, and yet touching the Gulf of Mexico by its south-west point. The conference of this name contains eight districts; namely, Mobile, Gainesville, Columbus, Tuskaloosa, Talladega, Montgomery, Eufaula, and Summerfield: ninety-eight stations, circuits, and missions; one hundred and eighteen ministers, with four hundred and forty-nine local preachers; and forty-four thousand six hundred and three church-members-fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy-nine being people of colour.

Macon Female Institute, Frederick G. Ferguson. Centenary Institute, A. H. Mitchell; Agent, G. Garrett.

The white population of this State, in 1810, amounted to 20,845; and in 1845, it had increased to 624,827. In 1820, its slave population amounted to 41,879; and in 1840, to 258,532. This is a fearful augmentation. It shows that an active and distressing internal barter in the flesh and blood of man must be going on within the limits of the States.

We have some relief in the fact above stated, that

15,279 of these poor wretches are within the pale of the Church.

We have two other conferences in this southern direction, which must be noticed, though they lie beyond our Mississippi route.

X. The TEXAS CONFERENCE contains four districts; namely, Galveston, Rutersville, Austin, San Antonio: twenty-nine stations, circuits, and missions; twenty-nine ministers, with fifty-four local preachers; and three thousand two hundred and thirteen church-members-seven hundred and ninety-nine of whom are people of colour.

XI. The EAST TEXAS CONFERENCE embraces three districts; namely, San Augustine, Marshall, Clarkesville: twenty-seven stations, circuits, and missions; twenty-three ministers, with seventy local preachers; and four thousand eight hundred and three church-members-six hundred and thirty-seven of whom are people of colour.

XII. In 1834, the Rocky Mountains were crossed by two or three missionaries, and the gospel was introduced into OREGON. This work has been progressing from that period to the present time. But as Oregon has not been formed into a conference, we are unable to report its exact state. Indeed, at the Pittsburgh Conference, I heard a missionary, who had spent several years in the country, give a most interesting account of the state of things, and the hopeful prospect of much good. He proposed the establishment of a conference for Oregon and California ;* though at the time the treaty for the cession of the latter territory to the United States had not been signed. The arguments of the missionary were listened to very atten

[* The "Oregon and California Mission Conference" has since been formed.]