“We therefore suppose that the report of verbal differences—­if the
     spirit of the remarks be anything—­between him and the gentleman to
     whom he refers, cannot be accounted as very serious.

“2d.  As it respects the opening of these columns to a fresh discussion of the matter relating to the Amoy Churches before Synod, we have simply to say that we dare not give consent, for the following reasons:  The Synod is the legislative body for the Church.  The documents and statements respecting the Amoy Churches were full and thorough in the information imparted.  Four sessions and more of the Synod were occupied with a careful preparatory hearing and final adjudication of the matter, and it is not the duty of the Christian Intelligencer to allow itself to be used as the agent of dissension among the Churches, and of opposition to the constituted authority of the Synod.”

Whether my views were misrepresented, and whether I was charged with seeking a different object from that for which I had asked—­I had not asked that the columns of the paper be opened for a fresh “discussion of the matter” which had been “before Synod,” but “for a full statement of the views of the Amoy Mission,” because of “mistaken impressions” in “our Churches”—­the Church will be able to decide as accurately as myself.  But I wish to say this much.  Your Missionaries do not consider that by becoming Missionaries they lose their rights as men, and Ministers of the Dutch Church.  They have the right to expect that, when away from home, their reputation will be protected.  When mistaken statements concerning their views get abroad in the Church, there should be, and we believe there is, a responsible party whose duty it is to correct such statements.  At any rate, a paper which professes to be the organ of the Dutch Church, has no right to refuse to the Missionaries themselves the privilege of correcting mistaken statements of their own views and their own language, that appear in its columns.  The Editor doubtless is responsible for what appears in his paper.  He may refuse to publish improper articles, but he may not garble and misrepresent them without incurring reproof.  The expense of publishing in pamphlet form corrections of mistakes which appear in the columns of a newspaper, is too heavy a tax to impose on any of the Ministry of the Church, especially on your Missionaries; and, even then, the corrections can be read by only a small portion of those who read the misstatements.