CONVERSATIONAL MEETINGS. 421 
late hour; and both the queries and the replies 
are usually listened to with attention. We always 
endeavoured to divest these meetings of all for- 
mality and reserve, and to render them engaging, 
by accompanying our replies with suitable facts, &c. 
as illustrations, and encouraging in the people the 
most unembarrassed confidence ; requesting them 
to present all their difficulties, and solicit explana- 
tions or directions. 
This meeting has always been highly interesting 
and has generally indicated the progressive im- 
provement of the people. The subjects discussee 
are perhaps less miscellaneous now than they were 
some years ago, when the people were totally 
uninformed in all the first principles of Chris- 
tianity ; and the nature of these meetings in some 
of the stations has, perhaps, undergone a slight 
change. They are, however, productive of im- 
portant benefit. 
Subjects of every kind were formerly discussed, 
and questions brought forward relative to the dis- 
cipline of children, the forming of connexions, 
and the whole of their domestic economy, agri- 
culture, trade, or barter, legislature, war and 
politics, history and science, as connected with 
the natural phenomena by which they were sur- 
rounded, and, occasionally, what might be termed 
the first efforts of philosophical research in their 
. partially enlightened minds. 
When the political questions referred to their 
foreign relations, or their intercourse with other 
islands, we sometimes allowed them to be enter- 
tained; but whenever they were connected with 
any civil proceedings, or the internal government 
on the island, although the person who introduced 
it was not interrupted during his speech, the 
