appalling." The address concluded thus: "The prayers of many who are ready to perish is with you, and their blessings are upon your endeavours to aid in procuring them that share of the means of subsistence, which was designed and is provided by the Creator of all things." A deputation of hand-loom weavers was then introduced, and read an address to the conference, and, in reply to questions put by several of the ministers, made statements, as to the condition of their fellow workmen, which very deeply affected their audience. The conference was addressed by the Reverends Dr. Bedford, of Worcester; W. Macdougal, of Kilmarnock; J. Young, of Andover; T. Morgan, of Birmingham; J.E. Good, of Gosport; J. Barfett, of Salisbury; W. Ferguson, of Bicester; W. Giles, of Liverpool; J. N. Goulty, of Brighton; Dr. Perry, of Reading ; H. G. Rhodes, of Sheffield; H. Atley, of Frome; W. P. Davies, of Ashburton; R. Slate, of Preston; T. Mann, of Trowbridge; D. Ronald, of Saltcoats, in Ayrshire; Mr. Smith, of Rotherham; J. G. Miall, of Bradford and J. Peters, of Rochdale, all of them testifying to the distress in their respective localities, and attributing it mainly to the operation of the Provision Laws.
At the evening meeting the Rev. W. M'Kerrow read a letter from Mr. Candlish, of Edinburgh, a minister of the Church of Scotland, approving generally of the objects of the conference, and regretting that he could not be present. Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Candlish, who had given in their adhesion to the cause of free trade, were soon to be engaged in an earnest agitation for a free church in their native land, and were the leaders of a body of ministers who sacrificed, at least, £100,000 a-year, to escape from the state dictation, which had accompanied state "sustentation." The Rev. J. Ackworth, of Horton College, Bradford, read an address to the Queen, which embodied the resolutions that had been passed, and prayed her generous interposition on behalf of her suffering people. The
