grounds when it could be avoided. Hence the previous inquiry & consultation. Till they are announced to be received nothing is officially done, but the previous inquiry is the ground on which that takes place. Now in 99 cases out of 100 the testimony of the local gatherings must be relied upon & that is to be desired but it would not be if the others were precluded from saying anything where they may very possibly have something. And surely if I am to give out people’s names I must have liberty to make a difficulty if I have one, & I repeat the case has arisen & the previous inquiry just what gives efficiency to the process. If brethren who care for the saints were present from all the gatherings, mutual consultation & godly care could have place, and while they could not, & are not meant to decide anything they could bring the names before all the gatherings with adequate previous inquiry so that things should not be done rashly. Confidence would be produced in common action. The notion of Hall I totally repudiate. London is not as large as Galatia. It is utterly false & there was no agglomerated population where a person could walk on a Sunday morning to another part of town perhaps when under questions of discipline where he resided. It is only a repetition of what H. said who does not practically know London & who likes local organization, which after all did not succeed with him. He often takes outward order & comeliness for inward power &