.N. Talmage said he wished to express his gratitude to the
fathers and brethren for all their kindness to himself and the
Missionaries at Amoy. If the Synod has not arrived at the very best
decision, he hoped it is the best under the circumstances. He felt
no desire to disobey the Synod, nor will the Missionaries at Amoy.
If we cannot organize a Classis at once, we will do the best we
can. He had been defeated, and he had no qualms of conscience in
submitting to the decision that had been reached."

I was willing to allow the previous, and, as I considered, very partial,
report of the proceedings of Synod to pass unnoticed, but felt that I
had no right to allow errors, such as are contained in the above two
paragraphs, to remain uncorrected. Therefore I addressed to the editor
the following note:

"_To the Christian Intelligencer._

"Mr. Editor:

"In looking over the report of General Synod, as given in the last
number of the _Intelligencer_, I find a very grave mistake in
reference to the position taken by me near the close of the
session. A similar mistake appears in the report made to the _New
York Observer_.[3]

[Footnote 3: I addressed to the editors of the _Observer_ a card,
correcting the mistake which had appeared in their paper, and they
published it.]

"When, in the order of business on Thursday morning, there seemed a
suitable opportunity for me to address the Synod, I was sitting
near Dr. Porter, and remarked to him that I wished to make such
address. He said that he desired to speak first. He arose and
addressed the Synod, in substance, as is reported. I was altogether
surprised, for I had given him no authority to speak for me;
neither had I expressed to him or any other man the sentiments he
attributed to me. I felt that his speech was altogether
unfortunate, for it seemed almost to demand of me a restatement of
my views. But I felt, also, that it would be improper, then, to
occupy the time of Synod with any further discussion, and contented
myself with merely taking exception to Dr. Porter's statement,
saying that I could not use the language he had just used.

"I also stated that although the Synod had not arrived at the best
decision, yet _perhaps_ it was the best under all the
circumstances. As these circumstances seem to be entire