PRESBYTERIANS. 



573 



by their masters when, being mutilated, they were 

 judged useless to perform the services for which they 

 had contracted ; it is therefore determined, with the 

 advice of the council, that, failing the receipt of 

 official information that energetic measures have been 

 taken to prohibit atrocities of such a nature, so bar- 

 barous and so contrary to the civilization of the age, 

 his Majesty not determining to the contrary, the fol- 

 lowing regulations shall be observed : 



1. Until further notice, the licenses conceded by 

 this Government to open emigration-houses for the 

 port of Callao, Lima, shall be suspended. 



2. Furthermore, there shall not oe admitted for ex- 

 amination by the Superintendent of Emigration, and 

 there shall not be registered at the office of the Pro- 

 curator of Chinese Affairs, contracts for any Chinese 

 emigrants or colonists destined as above mentioned. 



On August 3d the Chambers authorized the 

 Government to grant concessions for the es- 

 tablishment of submarine telegraph lines from 

 the coast of Portugal to Brazil. 



PRESBYTERIANS. I. OLD AND NEW SCHOOL 

 PEESBYTEEIANS OF THE UNITED STATES. Both 

 the Old School and the New School General 

 Assemblies met in New York City on the 20th 

 of May. Their proceedings throughout had 

 in an unusual degree a relation to each other, 

 and deserve to be considered side by side. The 

 conviction seemed to prevail among the mem- 

 bers of both bodies, that this would be the last 

 occasion on which they would meet in separate 

 sessions, and that they were, to all intents 

 and purposes, except in form, one body. One 

 new Synod and six Presbyteries from the South 

 were represented in the Old School General 

 Assembly. Immediately on the opening of the 

 Assembly, a committee of seven was appointed 

 to confer with a similar committee of the 

 New School on the subject of reunion. The 

 examination of the votes of the Presbyteries 

 showed that only a very small number had 

 unconditionally approved of the terms of re- 

 union which had been sent down by the Gen- 

 eral Assemblies of 1868, but that the most 

 of them had declared in favor of reunion on 

 modified conditions. On the seventh day of 

 the session (May 27th), the joint committee 

 reported the plan of reunion as it had been 

 agreed upon in conference. It was adopted by 

 a vote (including absentees who afterward re- 

 corded their votes) of 276 yeas to 8 nays. It 

 is in full as follows : 



The Committee of Conference appointed by the two 

 General Assemblies have attended to the duties as- 

 signed to them, and, after a very free interchange of 

 views, with prayer to Almighty God for His guidance, 

 are unanimous in recommending to the Assemblies 

 for their consideration, and, if they see fit. their adop- 

 tion, the accompanying three papers, to wit : 



1. Plan of Eeumon of the Presbyterian Church in 

 the United States of America ; 



2. Concurrent Declarations of the General Assem- 

 blies of 1869; and 



3. Eecommendation of a day of prayer. 



WILLIAM ADAMS, Chairman. 



G. W. Musgrave, C. D. Drake, 

 A. G. Hall, ~ *** 



L. H. Atwater, 

 Willis Lord, 

 H. E. Wilson, 

 Eobert Carter, 



James B. Shaw, 

 Wm. M. Francis, W. Strong, 

 John C. Grier, Daniel Haines, 

 J. F. Stearns, Wm. E. Dodge, 

 E. W. Patterson, J. S. Farrand, 

 S. W. Fisher, J. L. Knight. 

 HENRY DAT, Secretary. 



I. PLAN OF REUNION OF THE PEESBYTEBIAN CHURCH 

 IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Believing that the interests of the Bedeemer's king- 

 dom would be promoted by the healing of our divis- 

 ions, and that the two bodies bearing the same name, 

 having the same constitution, and each recognizing 

 the other as a sound and orthodox body according 

 to the principles of the confession common to both, 

 cannot be justified by any but the most imperative 

 reasons in maintaining separate, and, in some re- 

 spects, rival organizations ; we are now clearly of 



soon as the necessary steps can be taken, to be ac- 

 complished, upon the basis hereinafter set forth : 



1. The Presbyterian churches in the United States 

 of America, namely ? that whose General Assembly 

 convened in the Brick Church in the city of New 

 York, on the 20th day of May, 1869, and that whose 

 General Assembly met in the Church of the Covenant 

 in the said city on the same day, shall be reunited as 

 one church, under the name and style of the Presby- 

 terian Church in the United States of America, pos- 

 sessing all the legal and corporate rights and powers 

 pertaining to the Church previous to the division in 

 1838, and all the legal and corporate rights and powers 

 which the separate churches now possess. 



2. The reunion shall be effected on the doctrinal 

 and ecclesiastical basis of our common standards ; 

 the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments shall 

 be acknowledged to be the inspired word of God, and 

 the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; the Con- 

 fession of Faith shall continue to be sincerely received 

 and adopted as containing the system or doctrine 

 taught in the Holy Scriptures ; and the government 

 and discipline of the Presbyterian Church in the 

 United States, shall be approved as containing the 

 principles and rules of our policy. 



3. Each of the said Assemblies shall submit the 

 foregoing basis to its presbyteries, which shall be 

 required to meet on or before the 15th day of October, 

 1869, to express their approval or disapproval of the 

 same, by a categorical answer to the following ques- 

 tion : 



Do you approve of the reunion of the two bodies 

 now claiming the name and rights of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States of America, on the fol- 

 lowing basis, namely : " The reunion shall be effected 

 on the doctrinal and ecclesiastical basis of our common 

 standards : the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 

 ments shall be acknowledged to be the inspired word 

 of God, and the only infallible rule of faith and prac- 

 tice ; the Confession of Faith shall continue to be 

 sincerely received and adopted as containing the 

 system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures ; 

 and the government and discipline of the Presbyte- 

 rian Church in the United States shall be approved 

 as containing the principles and rules of our polity 1 " 



Each presbytery shall, before the 1st day of No- 

 vember, 1869, forward, to the stated clerk of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly with which it is connected, a statement 

 of its vote on the said basis of reunion. 



4. The said General Assemblies now sitting shall, 

 after finishing their business, adjourn, to meet in 

 the city of iHttsburg, Pennsylvania, on the second 

 Wednesday of November, 1869^ at 11 o'clock A. M. 



If the two General Assemblies shall then find and 

 declare that the above-named basis of reunion has 

 been approved by two-thirds of the presbyteries con- 

 nected with each branch of the Church, then the same 

 shall be of binding force, and the two assemblies 

 shall take action accordingly. 



5. The said General Assemblies shall then and there 

 make provision for the meeting of the General As- 

 sembly of the united Church on the third Thursday 

 of May, 1870. The moderators of the two present 

 assemblies shall jointly preside at the said Assembly 

 of 1870, until another moderator is chosen. The 

 moderator of the Assembly now sitting at the Brick 

 Church aforesaid shall, if present, put all votes and 

 decide questions of order ; and the moderator of the 



