The grants were wisely withdrawn in 1862. At the
present moment only 300_l_. is given, and the church is reported to be
self-supporting. The first bishopric was established in 1852. In 1861
Bishop Beckles instituted the native Church pastorate: its constitution is
identical with that of the Episcopalians, whose ecclesiastical functions
it has taken over.
According to the last census-returns, Sa Leone contains 18,660
Episcopalians; 17,093 Wesleyans and Methodists of the New Connection;
2,717 Lady Huntingdonians; 388 Baptists, and 369 Catholics. These native
Christians keep the Sundays and Church festivals with peculiar zest, and
delight in discordant hymns and preaching of the most ferocious kind. The
Dissenting chapel combines the Christy minstrel with Messieurs Moody and
Sankey; and the well-peppered palaver-sauce of home cookery reappears in
hotly spiced, bitterly pious sermons and 'experiences;' in shouts of
'Amen!' 'Glory!' and 'Hallelujah!' and in promiscuous orders to 'Hol' de
fort.' Right well do I remember while the rival pilots, Messieurs Elliot
and Johnson, were shamelessly perjuring themselves in the police-court,
[Footnote: _Wanderings in West Africa_, i.
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