On Monday evening, the 28th February 1842, a valedictory service was held in the Wesleyan Chapel, Collins Street, on occasion of the return of the Rev. Joseph Orton and family to England, who embark this day on board the "James," Captain Mark Todd, after a residence of eleven years in this and the neighbouring colony.

For several years Rev. Orton sustained the responsible office in the Wesleyan Ministry of Chairman of the Van Diemen's Land District. In that capacity he visited Port Phillip, ere yet the settlement had been formed, with a view to the establishment of a mission amongst the aboriginal natives; on which occasion he preached the Gospel for the first time in Australia Felix. In October, 1840, Mr. Orton took charge of the Wesleyan Society at Melbourne, as their first resident pastor. Connexional arrangements, however, requiring his return to England, it was resolved that a farewell service should be held on the occasion.

At six o'clock about 150 persons sat down to tea bountifully provided in the chapel, the arrangements of which appeared to give great satisfaction. At seven o'clock the religious services were commenced, with singing and prayer, by the resident minister, the Rev. Samuel Wilkinson. An address from the Wesleyans of Melbourne was then read, and presented to Mr. Orton by Mr. James Dredge; who also, in consequence of Mr. Orton's loss of voice, read that gentleman's reply. Messrs. Abel Thorpe, William Witton and John Jones Peers, on behalf of the society and congregation, presented a handsome gold watch, in testimony of their grateful sense of Mr. Orton's services, and the high and general esteem in which he is held. This memento of Christian affection bears the following inscription: -

Addresses were delivered, and prayers offered up, by Messrs. William Witton, James Dredge, Abel Thorpe, Thomas Forster, Joseph Ankors Marsden, Thomas Wilkinson, Captain Mark Todd, and the Rev. Samuel Wilkinson. The valedictory services, which were attended by a large and respectable audience, appeared to afford general satisfaction - which would, no doubt, have been considerably augmented, had not Mr. Orton's indisposition prevented him taking an audible part in the proceedings.

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,

In accordance with a unanimous resolution of the quarterly meeting of this circuit of the 14th May last, we, the undersigned, beg respectfully to address you on the eve of your departure for Europe.

We participate, in some measure, of the honour and pleasure which to yourself must ever be a source of high satisfaction, that the wise providence of God was pleased to distinguish you as the first among the messengers of the churches to proclaim the Saviour's dying love in the province of Australia Felix: and that not only to your few adventurous countrymen encamped on the site of the present capital of the province, but amongst the original and deeply degraded occupants of the soil - for whose immediate benefit you undertook your first voyage to these shores - whose condition has since excited so large a portion of your attention - and in whose present and eternal welfare you still take so deep an interest.

We are, however, more particularly impressed with a consideration of the debt of gratitude which our cause in this province owes to you, under God, as the first resident minister amongst us, for the prudent adjustment of our peculiar connexional arrangements, and the firm and affectionate administration of that scriptural form of discipline which has cemented the thousands of our Israel for more than one hundred years; the readiness with which you consented to defer your return to your native land in order to meet the urgency of our want of pastoral oversight, thereby subjecting yourself and numerous family to the harassing inconveniences of a voyage from Sydney and an unsettled sojourn in Melbourne till some permanent arrangement should be effected, demands our warmest acknowledgements.

We cheerfully avail ourselves of this mode of recording our opinion that your arrival amongst us, at that particular period, was more than opportune - it was providential. Wearied with a repetition of fruitless applications for a resident minister - with a congregation which had outgrown our means of accommodation - a society consisting of several classes - seven local preachers - a flourishing Sunday School - and a spacious chapel in course of erection - our imperious need of a governing and animating head was deeply felt: by your arrival, therefore, Methodism became emancipated from the anomalous position which had, for so long a time, cramped its energies, contracted its privileges, and beclouded its prospects.

As, however, that gracious providence under whose guidance you were brought amongst us now calls for a separation, and requires your return to Britain, allow us to express to you the high sense we entertain of the value of that wise pastoral vigilance with which you have watched over our spiritual interests - your acceptable, abundant, and useful ministerial labours - your truly Christian and catholic demeanour, and your unflinching and devoted attachment to the cause of Wesleyan Methodism. Most devoutly do we desire, on behalf of you and your dear family, a safe and speedy transit to our beloved native land.

Deeply as we deplore the departure from these shores of a minister possessed of mature colonial experience, and at a time too when much additional help is imperatively required, we cherish a hope that your return to England will be instrumental not only in communicating information respecting the actual condition and pressing spiritual privations of your countrymen in Australia Felix, but also in representing the awful destitution of the heathen population of this land, so that the sympathies of British Christians may be excited, and a suitable agency employed to promote the glory of our Redeemer in the salvation of this entire community.

That he, whose you are and whom you serve in the gospel of his Son, may cheer your latter days, and make you instrumental in bringing many sons to glory, is the earnest prayer of, Reverend and Dear Sir, &c., &c., &c.

Melbourne, February 22, 1842.

MY DEAR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS AND BRETHREN,

However undeserving I may be of that strength of kind expression which pervades your warm and affectionate address, I nevertheless receive it as a sincere mark of your christian esteem, and beg to assure you that it is as gratifying as encouraging to me, as a Minister of the Gospel, to be favored with such sentiments of respect from you as a branch of the Church of Christ. Language would fail in attempting to reciprocate those feelings of grateful affection entertained by me towards a people whose respectful attention and cordial co-operation have been unremitting ever since I have had the privilege of sojourning and laboring among them.

Your allusion to my early visit to the delightful province of Australia Felix revives the recollection of those mingled emotions of pleasure and commiseration which agitated my breast on that interesting occasion. Whilst gratified with the opportunity of being the first to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the assembled few of my countrymen, my heart was deeply affected with the degraded state of the larger portion of my congregation, who appeared to listen with silent, though incomprehensible amaze, to the religious services of the occasion. My soul yearned with ardent desire to communicate the glad tidings of salvation to these original occupants of the soil, by whom we were surrounded; but I could only pour out my soul to God on their behalf, and indulge the hope that they, or their successors, would eventually participate in the blessings of glorious gospel light.

Nor is my interest in their behalf diminished, nor are my hopes withered, amid all the discouraging circumstances which have intermediately presented themselves. Their deplorable case cannot be given up by a mind at all impressed with the infallible truths of God's word; or a heart influenced by the principles of Christianity, and respecting the authority of our blessed Lord, who commanded his servants to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

I trust the great head of the Church, under whose gracious Providence I have reason to believe that my attention was directed to the Aborigines of this part of Australia, will afford me a more favorable opportunity than I have yet possessed to use my feeble, but strenuous efforts, to bring more fully and more extensively to bear upon them that efficient machinery, which is the power of God unto Salvation; and without which every effort must prove abortive in essaying to raise these our fellow creatures from their deeply degraded condition.

In responding to the testimonials which you have been pleased to express, regarding my having acceded to the wishes of my respected brethren to meet your urgent request for pastoral supervision, as well as the advantages which have accrued to our infant and interesting cause in Melbourne, which you have deemed proper to attribute under God to my service, I have only to remark, that upon a review of those services I lament that my unsettled position has in no small measure prevented the due application of my energies to the interests of the rising society here. However, if my feeble labours in any degree promoted the cause of God among you, I am simply repaid for any inconvenience which I may have suffered during my detention in this part of the world.

But it is to you, my dear Brethren, especially, to some of you who have nobly borne the burden, and the heat of the early days of Methodism in Melbourne - it is to you, under God, that a large proportion of that praise rebounds, which you have so generously awarded to my unworthy self. Without adulation too much cannot be said of your exemplary piety - your fostering care of the infant society of which you formed a part - your perseverance amid discouragements - your devoted zeal - your unwearied diligence - your unbounded liberality - your constitutional importunacy for ministerial and pastoral care, and for your cordial, hearty, and affectionate co-operation with myself, as well as with my worthy successor. As, however, we are conjointly disposed to acknowledge that all the good that has been accomplished, the Lord hath done it; we will rejoice together over any success that may have attended our mutual agency, and humbly prostrate ourselves at the feet of our Divine Master, saying "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto God be all the glory." Arising out of circumstances over which I have no control, it appears to be the order of Providence that I should return to my native land, to which I cheerfully submit as the will of God, though not without feelings peculiar to the trial of severing myself from a sphere of labour, and circle of friends, which during a series of years, on many accounts, have become exceedingly dear to me; having the strongest claims on my devout attachment.

On the eve of my departure, I am naturally led to review the progress of Wesleyan Methodism, since the period of my arrival in these colonies to take charge of our Mission. In Christian simplicity, I may be allowed to express my gratitude to God for the success with which he has pleased to favor the cause during the period of my administration in conjunction with my beloved brethren. I also greatly rejoice on account of the continued prosperity, which has attended the operations of my honoured and respected successors.

Comparing the former period - when but five Missionaries were struggling amid almost overwhelming difficulties, with the present, when upwards of twenty zealous labourers are employed in the same field which is already white unto the harvest, with the encouraging prospect of an abundant and glorious ingathering, I am constrained to echo forth the emphatic and appropriate exclamation - "What hath God wrought." I beg to assure you, that whatever Divine Providence may cast my lot - you and the cause of God in this part of the world will continue to have a warm place in my affections. If spared to arrive in my native land, you may rest assured that no efforts shall be wanting on my part, fairly, and fully to represent the pressing Spiritual necessities of my 'countrymen' in Australia - nor can I omit as God may give me ability, to do my utmost to encite the sympathies of British Christians, by representing the awfully destitute condition of the Aboriginal inhabitants of this land.

I cannot conclude the observations which I have been induced to make in reply to your affectionate address, without adding my sentiments in reference to the delightful union which has so generally prevailed among the several sections of the Church of Christ in Melbourne, thereby evincing a catholicity of Spirit becoming the christian character. On all suitable occasions, there has been a happy combination of effort in behalf of the common cause of Christianity - which has exhibited to the world, that we acknowledge "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," and that we have one object in view, viz: the glory of God in the extension of the the Redeemer's Kingdom. "How delightful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." May you ever "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel."

And now my dear Christian friends and brethren, I commend you to God and the word of his grace, "My beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

I thank you most sincerely for all your kind attentions, and especially for your devout prayers in behalf of my family and myself, to which I most heartily respond, "God forbid, that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you."

"Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever." Amen.

I am my dear Christian friends and brethren,
Your very affectionate minister in Christ,

JOSEPH ORTON

A meeting was held at Melbourne to present the Rev. Mr. Orton, Wesleyan Missionary with a gold watch, bearing the following inscription:

Mr. Orton has for some time been incapacitated from pursuing his labours, by a physical affection, and returns to England by the "James," about to sail from Port Phillip.